29th January 2024
by Reb Jordin
Hannah Wicklund, a Nashville based Rock singer songwriter, recently released her new album ‘The Prize’ on January 12th. The record explores: new found love, love lost, feminism and a journey of self-discovery along the way. Wicklund’s journey has been a long and exhausting one, from set back after set back regarding the record Wicklund has still managed to gift fans with a beautiful and vulnerable album after five hard years of campaigning for her work in such a toxic music industry. Within the opening track ‘Hell in the Hallway’ and the closing track ‘Sun to Sun’, Wicklund expresses the difficulties of being a woman in a world run by men in a way which makes her listeners feel seen and understood in a genre usually filled with sexual exploitation and misogyny.
Wicklund has described the world of ‘The Prize’ as “the passing of the baton from girlhood to womanhood” a concept fully dissected in the title track. With lyrics like ‘I can not take with me the patterns of my youth, it’s time I kill the voices in my head that twist my truth’, backed by the ethereal and whimsical piano and strings, really make an impression on the listener. The lyrics of ‘The Prize’ help make young women realise they are not alone in the struggle of self-sacrifice and hardship which is growing up, whilst also healing the inner child in older women too.
The album will take you through all the emotions from lead single ‘Hide and Seek’, a hopeful song about the early stages of love and infatuation with a killer guitar solo. Later followed by ‘Songbird Sing’, an extremely intimate song which is slowed right down so that it is just Wicklund and her guitar expressing her fears in an extremely sensitive way. ‘The Prize’ jumps between classic rock feeling songs with a modern twist, to heartbreaking songs conveying Wicklund’s impressive versatility to the listener. Even transitions between songs leave the listener satisfied, a stand out being between ‘Dark Passenger’ and ‘Sun to Sun’ where the transition is so seamless it’s like one song leaving the listener exhilarated as the album draws to a close.
‘The Prize’ really does have something for everyone whether you are looking for a 70’s old soul within Wicklund’s gritty and powerful vocals or whether you are looking to feel something within the meaning behind the carefully crafted lyrics. Or perhaps you are just looking to escape to a well thought out world supported not only by this amazing soundtrack but also by Wicklund’s extremely impressive artwork she creates alongside the album to expand the immersive story of her creation.
So go and give ‘The Prize’ a listen and be forever changed. Tickets are on sale now for Wicklund’s ‘Hell in the Hallway World Tour’ if you want to hear this masterpiece live.
Listen to ‘The Prize’ here:
Bacchanalia Magazine 