Hannah Grace – Bigger Picture

Folk | Pop | Soul

73%

 

I’m no longer the ‘big picture’ person that I used to be. I used to think life was all about the destination, every step working towards the end goal you’ve envisioned. What did life mean without some grander purpose to it? At some point, that notion lost its appeal. After all, we live in a time where even the most basic ambitions – a house, a family, financial security – seem unattainable for so many. Building your time on this Earth around the “bigger picture”, comparing your own life against society’s measure of success, will often lead to disappointment.

The alternative is to live for the little things. The pick-me-up you feel from a good cup of coffee, the sun on your skin on the first warm day of spring, saying hello to that cute neighbourhood cat, finally catching up with an old friend who always makes you laugh. Your day doesn’t need to serve some greater purpose in order to matter, one small spark of happiness is enough to make it worthwhile. You don’t need some grand goal to work towards in order to give your life meaning, just having the most mundane things to look forward to – a weekend getaway, a new season of your favourite show etc. – can be reason enough for life to be worth living. 

Bigger Picture, the sophomore record from Welsh singer/songwriter Hannah Grace, feels like an album all about learning to navigate the world by clinging on to those little things. Intermixed across its runtime are moments that feels like a call to the void in the aftermath of a downward spiral, trying to make sense of a life that hasn’t followed the course you expected it to, and tracks that offer an answer, a lifeline, a new perspective on being. In the former camp we find ‘Oh Life Oh Love’ quite openly pondering on notions of “what am I doing with my life?”, and the fleeting title track pushing back at being made to feel small in the face of an immense societal pressure to succeed by someone else’s standards. Most striking of all is ‘Why Can’t I Cry About It?’. A gorgeous duet with Gabrielle Aplin, which touches on how we’re becoming desensitised to the rotten state of the world, by a constant stream of heartbreaking headlines. How much harder it becomes to focus on the few pinpricks of light in our lives when we’re surrounded by such darkness. 

Yet what makes up the bulk of the record are tracks which, slowly and tenderly, help guide a way to the light. ‘I Grow Up All Over Again‘ reminds us that there is no single end point where we have all the answers, life is one long chain of learning, growing and overcoming new obstacles in our path. Meanwhile ‘Try‘ pushes the idea that every chance taken, every step outside your comfort zone, no matter how small, is a triumph worth celebrating. The gentle R&B grooves of ‘Softer’ preaches about how kindness is not a weakness, and the strength it takes to keep a loving, gentle heart in a world so eager to turn it to stone. The greatest source of meaning in our lives doesn’t come from arbitrary milestones, but from the love and companionship of those we hold dear. Whether that’s the romantic love detailed in the soulful rise and fall of ‘Glorious World’ and the carefree warmth of ‘Loving You’, or the kind of supportive friendship captured in the elegant balladry of ‘The Moon‘. 

No one is perfect, no one has everything figured out, and the same is true of this record. In spite of how consistently strong and versatile her vocals are, Hannah’s performances and songwriting do still feel a little uneasy when stepping out of her comfort zone of soft soulful balladry. The way she pushes her voice to the limit at the climax of ‘Oh Life Oh Love’, impressive as it is, sounds out of place on such an otherwise subdued song. Likewise the brief choral breakdown on ‘State of Mind’ feels a bit out of the blue. Up until that point the track was doing a superb job of toying with some more commercial pop sensibilities and electronic elements, and instead two ideas that could have been explored better separately were suddenly thrust together.

The little things in life are enough to keep you going. Even if the rest of the package was lacking, Hannah’s enchanting vocals would have been enough on their own to make Bigger Picture worth the price of admission. Yet, it has to be said, the end result has a lot more to offer than just that. It’s the honest and tender lyricism that ends up being this record’s greatest strength. How it shines a light on worries we all share but dare not voice, and speaks of how best to grow, to find strength within yourself, and find meaning and beauty in the world around you. I adore when an album feels like a group of songs that truly belong together, joined by some unifying thread; Bigger Picture does that to a tee. Consistently full of heart and hard-won wisdom, it’s Hannah Grace’s strongest body of work to date.