Continuing her self imposed task of releasing one single per month for a year is Hannah White - each month another little gem appears in the inbox almost certainly bearing little resemblance to the one that preceded it or indeed the one that will follow. So far it has proved to have been a most inventive project with songs that may not have sat easily on an album getting their own individual day in the sun. So as Hannah stares out, sat upon a dryer in her local launderette, one marked "Out Of Service" let us open this months present.
"Chicken" begins as a combination of bass, drums and guitar with a wailing trumpet for good measure ho make a bluesy jazz soundtrack for a scene of domestic mayhem. there's almost a cinematic quality to it ( admittedly more British kitchen sink than Hollywood ) of everyone talking over each other and not hearing what the other is saying. This somewhat chaotic lifestyle is home to our narrator.
The chorus sees Hannah as the protagonist just dreaming of a better life, she doesn't want for much just relief from the ongoing pressure of a life that she can't see a way out of, with a night out dancing carefree her heart away . Her aspirations are therefore relatively small scale but to her they must seem enormous, not worrying about the rent, maybe a week abroad in the sun. The chorus is jaunty with a loud piano playing through it and there is a party groove going on, it is only the final line that snaps her back into reality from that idyllic dream.
"I wanna move my hips to the music it
Wants to take my troubles away
I wanna feel content like I got no rent
Like the bills have all been paid
I wanna try some fine mediterranean wine
And the mood it puts me in
I wanna know real fun like the fortunate one
I have never been"
The second verse paints a picture of being trapped from birth unable to escape.
"Well this town is a hoarder
Keeping me til I'm older
Holding me hopeless and dazed
Here we don't use our voices
It's not like a choice
More a product of the way we're raised"
The final verse contrasts the options open to others that she can but dream of, and despite all that has been thrown at her, the last line shows the spark that keeps her and others in her position going, a community spirit of the oppressed,
"Never had no money, never had no choice
Never known how to play with them accounting laws
Never had a place to call my own
I've been on the street and moved along
Could never have ambition with no confidence
But I got good people and good sense
Free-loading's never what they say
It's a life of working on low pay"
What at first seemed an almost comedic episode by reeling us in with a happy tune actually makes quite a pertinent point, that those handicapped at birth by being poor have very little scope for improving their position and are destined for a life of perpetual struggle. It is quite a heavy concept for a three minute song so why not sweeten the bitterest pill with a sweet tune.