where you grew up SINGLE: FRENCH for RABBITS – “Middle of the House” [Jol Mulholland, producer]
French for Rabbits – Middle of the House is available @ Bandcamp.
by Walter Price
The memories, the secrets, that a home can hold will vary from address to address. When Miranda Lambert sang, “I thought if I could touch this place or feel it/This brokenness inside me might start healing” in the Tom Douglas/ Allen Shamblin penned classic “The House That Built Me”, the storyteller is returning to a place of comfort and strength.
This, by contrast, is beautiful and sentimental compared to the haunting realities of French for Rabbits’ Brooke Singer’s experiences in “Middle of the House”, where Singer remembers, “In the middle of the house where you grew up/saw the way that your eyes closed at the first sign of a raised hand thrown/(see the marks on the walls/baby, how you’ve grown”. A tale of we can’t choose the places or hearts that have been tasked with raising us…and returning home can, sometimes, be an assurance that one has persevered.
The sympathetic track, with its dark-wind blows opening, immediately reminds you that it isn’t a feel-good lullaby. Rather a starkly beautiful reminder that, against all odds, you must let it go…for your own renewal and survival. And returning to the scene of fear and turmoil isn’t the ‘you’ of now…As reassuring your someone of their growth isn’t only compassionate… it’s deserved comfort.
For fans of Beirut and/or Beach House.
FRENCH for RABBITS
Produced by Jol Mulholland, Mastered by Chris Chetland
Written by Brooke Singer, Alexander Biggs, and Jol Mulholland
Written during a Native Tongue writing camp at Grove Studio near Sydney, Australia.
Cover photograph: Emma Brittenden / Artist photo by Ebony Lamb
Brooke Singer // John Fitzgerald
Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa / Ben Lemi / Penelope Esplin
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