Hannah Wicklund has never sounded particularly interested in quietly accepting the world as it is. However, on her newest single, the South Carolina singer-songwriter turns that instinct into a sprawling blues-rock anthem for anyone who has looked at the beliefs they inherited and started asking uncomfortable questions.
Taken from her new album, the song pairs Hannah’s muscular guitar work with grand piano and a huge harmony-filled chorus, giving those questions plenty of room to roar.
At the centre of her new single, “Marionettes”, is the idea of who gets to pull the strings. “‘Marionettes’ is written for the black sheep of the family,” Hannah says. “It’s for the soul that questions the systems that deny us feminine wisdom and who cannot withstand a curious mind. May we each challenge our beliefs enough to make sure they’re really ours…”
Her invitation to challenge our beliefs until we are sure they are actually our own gives the song its most interesting tension: rebellion here isn’t simply about rejecting something. It’s about figuring out what you genuinely believe once everybody else’s voices are stripped away.
Hannah is putting that philosophy into practice with the album itself, as rather than handing her new album straight over to the major streaming platforms, she has made the complete record available through physical and direct digital formats while releasing its songs to corporate streaming services one at a time, in track-list order, across an entire year. It’s an unusual move, but one that fits her new song rather neatly.
