After the success of the 2022 EP, ALIVE, the up-and-coming artist Hanley has shown us the future of pop ballads with the celestial timbres within their latest piano pop score, So Much for Being Real. Through the sequence of crescendos which punctuate the plaintive piano keys beneath the pure yearning within the vocals, you’ll feel your soul stir as much as the instrumental arrangement which emanates the kind of radiant enlightenment which only comes via acceptance and emotional intelligence.
Promises becoming little more than empty platitudes is one of the greatest betrayals we will ever experience in life, there’s little solace to be found in the bitterness of naivety after being swept up in an idea of perpetuity, but Hanley’s latest composition which was delivered with superlatively spacey compassion hits the mark of solace with perfect precision.
So Much for Being Real was officially released on October 27; stream it on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast