I remember some months ago when I first heard “Bonfire“, the first track on 100, the debut album from UK indie rock band The Hunna, which was released on August 26, 2016. You know when sometimes, you can tell from the first few seconds of hearing a song that you will probably fall in love with it.
From that day on, I’ve been listening to it every single day and I’m still not sick of it. That’s like one of the rarest things. There are only a handful of songs I can listen to over and over again without having to remove it from my Spotify playlist. Not even the cold winter wind bothered me anymore as soon as I turned on “Bonfire”.
Then some months later I started writing for WPGM and I go by one rule: Only write about musicians you have in your playlist/would add to your playlist. This is why I interviewed them at their album launch party in London. That was just one week after the release of 100.
When you listen to the album from start to end, you will realize that one song flows into the other. It’s one big artwork, made out of 16 mosaics, every single one reflecting different colours. The Hunna use dynamics so freaking well, that you find yourself moving to the beat, even if you don’t want to.
Sometimes they put, what I like to call, explosions in their tracks. And this is where you lose it. Just like when you kiss someone for the first time. The little firework you feel just before your lips combine. You feel like you’re going crazy and your heart might jump out of your chest any second. Slowly and then all at once.
When you take a look at their album on Spotify you will see that the most played songs are “Bonfire”, “You & Me“, “She’s Casual“, and “We Could Be“. These tracks have millions of clicks. Of course, they are dope, but can we talk about how under-appreciated “Brother” and “World Is Ours” are?
At 1:42, the bridge of “Brother” starts with a slow beat and gains awesomeness with every bar, while “World Is Ours” seems like the perfect youth anthem. It makes me want to produce a teen movie just to use it as a soundtrack.
Lyrically and dynamically “Sycamore Tree“, “Be Young” and “Rock My Way” might be the weakest pieces compared to the other songs on the album. The melody repeats itself outstandingly often, so that you can’t really listen to it in permanent loop. However, it still makes you feel something and in my head I see couples slow dancing to “Sycamore Tree” when listening to the track.
The Hunna incorporate parts of certain 100 songs into other tracks within the same album. For example, on “We Could Be”, there’s a line saying “You’ll hear how we blew up like a bonfire”, which is a possible reference to the first track on the album, “Bonfire”. When I asked the band about the last time they felt completely free, they answered, “literally right now”. I believe you can feel that when listening to their debut masterpiece.
That’s what a consummate album is about. You need to be able to feel the passion. The artist has to deliver emotions to you. And man, I can feel the emotions of 100.
At the album launch party they played their new songs and I saw so many happy people in the crowd, singing along. The gig was quite minimal, only the band on stage and some decent lights. No confetti, no ostentatious lightshow. The album was big enough, they didn’t need paraphernalia. They put their entire energy and passion into their performance on stage so I completely ate it up when Valentino-100 sang “I’m sure this is what I was made for”.
Purchase The Hunna’s 100 album on iTunes here.
Words by Jazz Egger
