If you’ve spent any time in the Bay Area underground over the last decade, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself captivated by the sonic world of Hannah Lew. As the force behind Grass Widow and Cold Beat, she’s indie-pop royalty around here.
Written in Richmond and Oakland, her self-titled debut album is what she calls a “wartime album”—a collection of dream-guided, surrealist synthpop that somehow manages to combine heavy, existential dread with danceable, Italo-disco 4/4 beats. It’s the perfect soundtrack for dancing through the apocalypse, or at least a breakup.
