Hemi Hemingway does it all in 2nd album ‘Wings of Desire’
Punk meets Western in the new heartbreak album.
★★★★☆
Photo: Nicola Sandford
New Zealand-based rock artist Hemi Hemingway has released his second studio album, Wings of Desire. Hemingway spends this album switching focus from his previous 1950s pop sound to a tribute to 1980s Berlin punk, creating and stepping into a completely different world. Hemingway’s clear love for all of the past genres he has tapped into throughout his career makes this album atmospheric and easy to enjoy.
The album opens with its title track, establishing the campy, 80s western movie world we find ourselves in. Listeners are also immediately greeted with Hemingway’s voice: smooth and experienced, provoking emotions as much as it soothes them. Hemingway gives us simple yet ever-relevant lyrics in this track about losing love in a staring-off-into-the-sunset kind of way: “I should have called you baby / I should’ve given anything to keep you with me / I only wanted honesty.” The album’s second track, This City’s Tryna Break My Heart, takes on a much funkier sound, making you want to dance while he sings, “love is a shot in the dark anyway / I need a shot to the brain.”
Hemingway’s sultry voice shines in every track, but that is perhaps most true in Desiree, a straightforward, dedicated song with wacky and hopeful lines like “I wanna kiss your brain” that make it an instant-playlist track. Hemingway’s vocals strip down to their emotional core in Promises. The track is calm in sound but places itself at the height of the album’s emotions. The track also features folk-rock vocalist Georgia Gets By, whose voice sounds like memories coming to the surface. Their combined vocals add an element of loving and sad nostalgia to the track that makes it a beautiful kind of heartbreaking.
(To Be) Without You takes Hemingway’s dark vocals to a new level as he describes figuring out how to move on from the aforementioned heartbreak. With all-encompassing synths and now-signature reflective lyrics like “If I see the sky / From the sea of love again / Will I hear the cry / Of our old life in the way?” The song softly leads us into the album’s second half, processing old memories and looking forward to what lies ahead after a relationship ends.
6th April ‘13 is one of the album’s heaviest tracks, working through Hemingway’s traumatic memories of his hometown in preparation to see those places again. Hemingway’s lyrics shine here, with one of the track’s early lines, “to think that I could outrun you / the night you broke my heart in two / ‘cause I still live the pain,” followed by a stripped-down spoken-word section, Hemingway delivers beat after beat of danceworthy heartbreak.
Long Distance Lover is playful, adding an element of flirtatious fun so far unestablished lyrically on this album. The track is a comedic ode to a lover who is distant, both in space and in emotion. With lyrics like “I’m putting your picture on my pillow,” the song is its own kind of highlight in Hemingway’s repertoire. The lighter portion of the album continues on If Love is a Winter’s Day, which imagines the ending of a past relationship as the start of a new chapter.
Here, Hemingway sings, “We’re better apart in the end” to angelic background vocals, calming all of the album’s emotions down into reassurance.
The album begins its wind-down with Oh, My Albertine, slow and sultry; Hemingway’s voice blends flawlessly with fellow New Zealand artist Vera Ellen’s. The song is the epitome of all of the sad and hopeful thoughts of heartbreak. The two singers look towards the future and list all of the good things that could happen next.
Hemingway changes his subject matter for the album’s final track, No Future No Future No Future. The song is dark and intense, ending the album with almost five minutes about the political atrocities currently happening all over the world. Hemingway is a whole new kind of emotional in this track, almost screaming as he says that maybe the best thing to do is “burn it down” and start over.
Wings of Desire is sweet and hopeful, intense and meaningful. Hemingway combines his smooth-flowing voice with funky rock beats to create a world of nostalgic 80s-era heartbreak that is all too easy to place yourself into.
Wings of Desire is out now via PNKSLM Records.