Gemma Hayes
Blind Faith
Gemma Hayes Music/Townsend Music
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Half a lifetime ago, back in 2002, I was introduced to Gemma Hayes’ music courtesy of her dynamic, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Night On My Side and discovering her songs was a revelation. Witnessing her perform these songs at the Mercury Lounge in New York City soon thereafter in the spring of 2003 cemented my admiration for her artistry, which has evolved in thrilling ways over the past two decades.
The dynamics of music consumption and fandom have been transformed during this period as well, for better or for worse, largely due to the rise of streaming platforms and technologies that make artists’ entire discographies readily accessible with a click or a tap. The ease and immediacy with which listeners can engage with music has rightfully challenged—and arguably overthrown—the traditional record industry supply chain complex.
Meanwhile, since far less effort and commitment are required to access new music nowadays, our connection to songs and albums is more ephemeral, superficial, and disposable than ever. For artists, it’s also far more seamless of a process for them and their labels to release new music without the drawn-out promotional campaigns that used to rule the day. And as a result of these related phenomena, there’s an increasingly inherent expectation among fans that their favorite artists will churn out new music for them to consume at a steady clip, thereby satisfying their ever-insatiable need for instant gratification.
Some artists play the game, adopting a workhorse-like approach to releasing new music in relatively frequent succession. And more power to them.
Refreshingly, however, there are other artists that refuse to concede to such demands and expectations bestowed upon them by others. Instead, these artists continue to write and record at their own pace, summoning their creative muses whenever they feel inclined and inspired, ultimately crafting songs that are consistently resonant and remarkable. In other words, these artists’ commitment to cultivating their craft embodies the old adage that good things come to those who wait. Fiona Apple, Kate Bush, Portishead, Sade and The Cure most notably come to mind, and Gemma Hayes belongs among this group as well.
“I stopped writing for a long time, for many reasons, one of which was simply that I lost the urge to write,” Hayes confides in an official statement, alluding to the ten-year recording hiatus that followed her 2014 album Bones + Longing and becoming a mother to the first of her two children early that same year. “I found the first few years of motherhood really hard, so the idea that I could just get up on stage deserted me for a while. I lost my confidence, and I found myself not having a connection to music in any way.”
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The onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020 prompted Hayes and her family to relocate from the Battersea district of London to West Cork in her native Ireland, and it was there that she reignited her passion for songwriting that provided the spark for what would become her sixth studio album Blind Faith. “Songs began to murmur, distil and rise up in my mind,” she explains. “I would lock myself in the room, usually late at night when the world was asleep. I knew I needed to capture them before they left me.”
Fittingly enough, the album’s cover artwork—designed by the German artist Dirk Wüstenhagen—suggests an artist diving back into her art with conviction and a newfound sense of freedom, perhaps even a bit of reckless abandon. As with the nondescript figure in free fall illustrated here, Hayes has been liberated from any expectations of the commercial or critical accolades that may await the final output.
Hayes’ songs have always drawn their power from her lyrical intimacy and lucidity, juxtaposed with her penchant for experimenting with various sonic textures that embrace both the quiet and the loud. These hallmarks are on riveting display throughout Blind Faith’s nine compositions, produced by Hayes herself alongside Karl Odlum, David Odlum & Brian Casey.
The album commences with the stark yet striking “Eye For An Eye,” with the subdued plucking of guitar strings giving way quickly—and somewhat incongruously—to the disquieting opening line “Eye for an eye / we were out for blood.” What unfurls is a stirring meditation on embracing vulnerability and navigating the circuitous path that loving someone requires us to traverse, sentiments made palpable in the song’s chorus (“Arms open wide / We did not shakе / We did not fold / Hearts open / Your hand still in minе / Both a little bit broken / We don't mind / Felt the rush / Now the world is gone”).
“Central Hotel” follows, its initially languid arrangement morphing into a dissonant, shoegaze-like soundscape as Hayes conjures evocative imagery of recognizing beauty where one least expects to find it, with lines like, “Somewhere outside Manchester / waiting on a train / You hold my hand / and we say nothing about it / Looking out at Northern England’s industrial complex / you think the old steelworks look wise and majestic / We talk about nothin.’”
Featuring her fellow Irish singer-songwriter and Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan, “Another Love” is one of Blind Faith’s handful of standout songs. A haunting narrative that traces two people finding clarity and empathy in their shared sense of love lost, it reinforces Hayes’ acute awareness of the rawest, most emotionally honest depths of the human condition.
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A plaintive soliloquy of loss and irresolution, the confessional lead single “High & Low” is similarly gripping. “Turn up the noise to drown you out,” Hayes sings. “Since you've been gone, the silence seems so loud / Wanna reach inside and rip you out / Girl, home steady / But if I dare to speak your name / Thoughts come crashing just like waste.”
Co-written by Hayes’ kindred musical spirit Lisa Hannigan (who also provides backing vocals), the album’s second single “Feed The Flames” examines the fragility and fracturing of relationships. Hayes has shared that the song was inspired by watching the 1966 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring real-life partners Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as damaged characters ensnared in a marriage mired by volcanic passion and dysfunction.
Hayes explores the elusive pursuit of happiness in the ruminative “The Break Didn’t Heal Right,” cleverly rendered in lines like the opening verse, “I’m in the thick of it / But I’m trying not to show / I’m bleeding out / It’s leaving pretty patterns in the snow.” The steady strum-driven arrangement that gradually builds toward a cacophonous climax calls to mind the dramatic flare of Interpol’s finest, densest moments on record.
Blind Faith’s other notable moments include the thought-provoking third single “Hardwired,” which laments the consequences of our hyper-connected age. Here, Hayes evokes the social commentary spirit of Springsteen, offering incisive observations about the state of human existence today atop an uplifting guitar-driven melody just like The Boss has done time and time again.
The album concludes with the beautiful whisper of a folk tune “Can’t Kill A Hunger,” during which Hayes contemplates, “How will we know / if heaven is better than the devil we know,” followed by the multi-layered, dirge-like closer “Return Of The Daughters” influenced by visions Hayes had of women rebelling against Taliban suppression in Afghanistan.
Six studio albums into her accomplished recording career, Gemma Hayes has perfected the art of connecting personal introspection to universal truths in her songwriting, ensuring that the melancholic musings that shape her songs never veer into the maudlin. With songs as absorbing and disarming as the nine featured here on Blind Faith, not to mention across her entire recorded repertoire, Hayes could wait another ten or even twenty years to craft another album and I would still be all ears when it finally arrives.
Notable Tracks: “Another Love” | “The Break Didn’t Heal Right” | “Can’t Kill A Hunger” |“High & Low”
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