Hammock

With a title like “Dying Alone,” one cannot help but immediately get into a somber mood of reflection, melancholy, and sorrow. After all, we are all coffin-bound, and many of us are destined to spend our final moments alone. I suppose that the current global situation has only exasperated our loneliness, a prospect that many of us are not welcoming in the very end. I remember having one of our last conversations with my grandmother. I remember her asking, “What happens next?” as I sat there holding her hand. “I don’t know what will come next,” she said as she drifted in and out of lucidity. “I think I know,” I said to myself, but my lips stayed sealed. I think I know, but then again, do I? Titles like “Dying Alone” can bring back repressed memories, stir up emotion, and color the way that I hear the sound. And it’s not the only introspectively titled piece on a new album by Hammock itself titled Elsewhere. And while these thoughts make me sullen and sad, there is a spark in the night that makes me want to reach up, out, and live. To that end, “Elsewhere serves as a gateway to another place, materializes feelings of separation and loss without closure, and calls listeners back to live their lives – not spend them longing to be something or somewhere else.” And that’s just the words – the music by Hammock is a whole other journey. I think it is fair to say that I have covered and picked nearly every album by Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson for my Best of the Year selections for every single year since I discovered the band in 2006. And that’s already saying something. Furthermore, I am sure that I’ve got the 2021 pick right here. So without further ado, I’m honored to exclusively premiere for you a track titled “Dying Alone”.