We are very honoured to premiere the first music in over eighteen months from the glorious tunnel traffic , and it is a welcome return. Sidelined by the horror show of 2020, tunnel traffic – essentially the solo work of Adam Hachey – has released a very personal and imperious track ‘Next To Me’: an unadorned, brittle and delicate paean to a muse, with sweeping, crying strings and the crisp crunch of sparkling acoustic guitars. Hachey’s voice is sonorous and profound – imbued with feeling and an enigmatic presence.
Whereas the last album from tunnel traffic, ‘Age of Convictions’ (reviewed by me here) heavily featured the vocals of collaborator Jacky Muñoz, this track and the forthcoming album ‘Take My Power’ feature Hachey’s vocals. Hachey says of the work:
‘Take My Power’ explores my thoughts/emotions whenever my mental health reaches a low point. Oddly enough, I wrote all the lyrics before the pandemic and have been making slow progress on recording and production the past year. I’m extremely grateful that everyone close to me is still doing okay, but like a lot of people, I’ve had a rough time in this pandemic mentally. I think it helped that what I was experiencing was already, to some extent, articulated and processed on this album beforehand.
I’m back on vocals. Several of the songs were written to/about Jacky and the rest were personal to me, so it didn’t feel right to have her sing this time.
There is a satisfying tension between the deeply melancholic instrumentation and vocals with the fulsome lyrics of love and adoration:
i hear her heart beating.
it recognizes the stakes.
her sincere hands of healing
are resting here on my face.
This is truly beautiful, moving music. You can listen below and preorder for the release date on Monday, 7 June 2021.
We can look forward to more from tunnel traffic leading up to the release of the album later this year with some more singles due out in the coming months.
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