Last month, Hiss Golden Messenger (aka M.C. Taylor) released a standalone single titled “Standing In The Doorway,” which came from the same sessions that resulted in his 2016 album Heart Like A Levee. It seems like that track was the final bit of closure Taylor needed to move on from the album, and now he’s announced a new record, titled Hallelujah Anyhow, due out on September 22 on Merge Records.
Aside from the title, the release date, and the flowery cover art above, there’s not much else we can say about the album just yet. Taylor released a statement, but it’s pretty abstract and just speaks poetically about darkness and dealing with it. The only real concrete information about the album’s content: “This music is for hope. That’s the only thing I want to say about it.”
That’s really all there is to report about the album for now, so check out the art above and read the full statement below.
“I’m from nowhere. That’s the way I feel about it now, right at this moment. Music took me and made me and gave me a purpose and I built my world with it, and now my geography is a musical one, forever. And when I break, when I think about running as far as I can, I remember that there is nothing that does me like music, and I might as well be a poor man in a world of my own devising. Hallelujah anyhow.
Rhythm? I learned it over twenty years in the back of rented vans, in attics and back rooms—hard places to get to, harder places to get out of. And now rhythm is my clock and I live by it. We all do. But it’ll kill you if you’re not careful. It might kill you even if you are. Hallelujah anyhow.
I see the dark clouds. I was designed to see them. They’re the same clouds of fear and destruction that have darkened the world since Revelations, just different actors. But this music is for hope. That’s the only thing I want to say about it. Love is the only way out. I’ve never been afraid of the darkness; it’s just a different kind of light. And if some days that belief comes harder than others, hallelujah anyhow.
Whatcha gonna do when the wall comes down?
When the wall comes down?
What you ought to do is let it lie—let it lie
And in the gathering darkness vow to never go back
It was built by man and you can tear it down
Tear it down, tear it down
Step back, Jack, from the darknessI’ve seen darker things than night. Hallelujah anyhow.”
