Hannah Frey and I share a Chicago timeline. I first discovered her on a weekend home from college listening to NPR on my mom’s speakers utterly transfixed by her song “Lost in the Midwest”, a beautiful folk tale taken from her 2019 debut album White Picket Fence. I don’t know what it was about that song but I just remember never having heard anything like it in my life even though it really is just your standard folk song in almost every way. The lyrics, I suppose, spoke to me being around her age in the same state maybe feeling similar feelings; it’s also just a criminally catchy song, so there’s also that. I listened to White Picket Fence a ton after discovering “Lost in the Midwest” and although no song on that album ended up topping that one for me, it’s still a magnetic, focused, and impassioned debut album from someone with so much love in their heart for their friends, their family, the world, and the songwriting craft.
I took my mom to go see Hannah Frey play at an arts festival downtown and there couldn’t have been more than 10 people sitting and standing around. She played some songs off White Picket Fence and a Kacey Musgraves cover or two and it was really lovely to hear and see her perform. Afterwards, I talked to her dad and he told me she was moving to Chicago basically around the exact same time I was planning on moving to Chicago. It took a couple of years before living in this windy city of ours before I was alerted to a Hannah Frey show that I could actually make. I ended up seeing her at this very small venue called the Golden Dagger in Lincoln Park. I had never been there before but it’s a very charming, intimate bar venue and she played many new songs I had never heard before (sadly still no “Lost in the Midwest” but I still hold out hope my prayers will be answered one day) but with a band that was tighter than the lid on a 10-year-old can of homemade jam left forgotten in the cupboard. Fast forward roughly two years and here I am reviewing the long-awaited (at least to me) follow-up to White Picket Fence and I just can’t help but laugh at how our timelines lined up this way. Anyway, that was a long, somewhat pointed tangent and I’m glad I got that out of my system. Now, let’s get to talking about Hannah Frey’s new sophomore album, Lucky Girl.
Coming in just under 30 minutes with seven tracks plus an instrumental closer (that reprises the opening track), Lucky Girl is a good 10+ minutes shorter than her debut but it packs a much bigger punch across a grander soundscape of genre influences all the way from twangy folk to dreamy shoegaze. The album opens with the only song that really could have started this album, “Quiet Quit”. The song starts out with a simple floor tom drum beat trucking along on its own until an introspective guitar line comes in that pairs with the drums in a way that utterly forces your attention before Hannah echos out the album’s first lyrics with a smirk and a grin: “I’m gonna… cancel all my memberships”. A song about pure and earnest reclamation of self, “Quiet Quit” begins the strongest lyrical theme of the album that I think can be summed up in one simple word: happiness. Not every song is about the simple joys of life but an overwhelming amount of the songs on this album are just about loving what you have, remembering what you lost, and yearning for what the future has in store for you. With so much of the world perpetually living in a state of disarray, it’s a joy to have an album come out like Lucky Girl that reminds you of all the good you still have in your life.
Next up, ”Girls Gotta Yearn” is a fun, hopeful track about growing in your young adult years living in a big city. There’s a great big Julia Jacklin influence in the verses similar to her sound on Don’t Let The Kids Win but wrapped up in a new twangy sheen. As the album’s first single, it’s got one of the best choruses and will no doubt be a crowd-pleaser for years to come!
The album’s title track “Lucky Girl” comes in swinging with an upbeat, twangy feel as you begin to smile from ear to ear following along with Hannah’s lyrics and her joyous line deliveries. How she delivers “Mercury is not in retro…” is just one of those little musical moments you cling to on an album for no reason at all that slowly ends up becoming one of your favorite moments on an album. If you are ever in need of a smile or confidence booster, this is the song for you to scream while driving down Lake Shore Drive with the windows down in the beautiful Chicago summer air.
I’m not sure if you could exactly call “Bad Breaks” a ballad but it’s definitely got that vibe. It’s brilliantly placed in the track list coming after three tracks preaching the beauty of the world, but rest assured, “Bad Breaks” isn’t drowning in sad. It’s angry, enraged, and disappointed in the pain that is needless put on the shoulders of so many in this world, especially women simply wanting to exist without fear of being stalked or followed or assaulted, but there is hope to the song if you know where to look. “Bad Breaks” was an early favorite when I made my first run-through of the album and it’s still a favorite all these replays later.
The emotions continue to flow into the next track “People Pleaser”. The song gives off more of that slow, morose, moody Julia Jacklin but with just a sprinkle of slide guitar to round out that folk and Americana influence flowing through much of Hannah Frey’s songwriting. I haven’t said it out loud yet but I think I love this song even a bit more than “Bad Breaks” just because it’s got that ballad feel but is a bit more relaxed and laid back than the heaviness that comes with a ballad. This song shimmers and glistens like a fireplace on a cold Iowa night. Hannah duets with another Chicago-based singer-songwriter Julia Morrison and the two blend so well together you might have trouble distinguishing who is who. I know this song is staunchly firm in its stance that being a people-pleaser isn’t the greatest thing in the world but it’s so ironic that this song will end up being the biggest people-pleaser on the album.
“Inner Child” is probably my least favorite song on the album (outside of the instrumental closer) but that doesn’t mean I still don’t really like this song. There’s a lovely shade of aggression on this song akin to early Lucy Dacus with the inclusion of some chunky distorted guitars, pounding drums, and one ripping guitar solo. If I had to pinpoint the biggest reason why I don’t think this song clicks with me as much as others is because the chorus doesn’t quite hit the same heights as previous songs, in my opinion, so I find myself coming back to this one less even though it still offers plenty to stand out. However, it’s definitely one of those songs you just can’t skip when you’re listening to the album in full. I’m sure after a handful of more listens, “Inner Child” might be one of my favorites! Who knows.
Right up next to “People Pleaser”, “The Bright Side” takes the cake for the best song on the album. At just over five minutes long, the song is an expansive, well-traveled piece of dreamy indie rock with undoubtedly the best chorus and catchiest melodies on the album. There were a few moments of deja vu I got from listening to this album for the first time that had me thinking back to her show at Golden Dagger and this song was the biggest hit of deja vu. It really says something about a song if you still remember its melodies two years after hearing it for the first time live. This song, paired with “Cold Snack Lullaby”, is such a monumental and inspired way to end an album that my hat has to go off to Hannah Frey. Most people take 20 years to write a song as good as “The Bright Side” and Hannah snuck this one in while no one was looking and it’s only her second album!
I think it’s safe to say that Lucky Girl surpasses the bar Hannah Frey set for herself six years ago on White Picket Fence and I don’t say that lightly. This album is a very different kind of album to the pure folk and Americana sound of White Picket Fence so maybe it’s not fair to compare but as someone who still loves White Picket Fence and revisits songs from that album frequently, Lucky Girl is such a huge step forward in Hannah Frey’s artistry and songwriting abilities that the sky really is the limit at this point. Hannah Frey co-hosts a musical showcase of Chicago artists through a program she calls Third Space Showcase. It’s often held at Comfort Station in Logan Square and I really recommend y’all check it out to embed yourselves deeper into the Chicago indie music scene. It’s inspiring that on top of the incredible music Hannah is writing on a daily basis, she still has the time and energy to give back and foster real, authentic connections amongst local artists in such a wonderful way. Hannah Frey is one lucky girl who is going places, mark my words.