Hand Habits - Blue Reminder
2025 • FAT POSSUM RECORDS • INDIE / FOLK / ALT-ROCK
84/100
Being okay in itself is a consolation prize to life. We mess up. We let down those we love, and if we're lucky, we see the light break through, and transcend the bullshit we put on display and build off our mistakes. That's the thread that runs through this album.
Meg Duffy, the artist behind Hand Habits, tracked most of these live while on tour, and it shows in the record's confident sprawl. Songs drift from steampunk momentum to meek pleading, then build back into soaring choruses that cut through the self-doubt. "Wheel of Change" ends with guitars that sound like a hollow screechy funk filter straight out of Mk.gee's playbook, while "Bluebird of Happiness" is pure coming-of-age closing credits - the kind of song that leaves you crying happy tears as the character finally runs after what they've been avoiding.
The record sits comfortably in a venn diagram with Zauner's cathartic joy and Sufjan's melancholic beauty, but Duffy's voice is what ties it all together. The album gets artsy and off-kilter at times, drifting into challenging territory, but each time it does, Duffy pulls the thread and straightens everything out with pop sensibility.
Blue Reminder is filled with "dammit I deserve love too!" anthems, communal sing-alongs about finding joy in life's unfuckery, and songs that sound like they were sung by lighthouse keepers writing to distant lovers. That defiance is often at the hands of a lover who has seen our protagonist weak, has seen them bleed, but the songwriter still wants it all. On "Jasmine Blossoms" - the most quotable song on the record - they deliver tongue-in-cheek observations about finding joy and harmonizing pain while the western world ends, our bellies filled with cake.
This progression from self-doubt to acceptance runs through the album's emotional arc. "More Today" establishes the thesis - that the love we lose informs who we become - while title track "Blue Reminder" finds Duffy at their most vulnerable, asking to be taken as they are while oscillating between woman, child, and broken man. By "Living Proof," they're marveling at love's transformative power, having moved from essentially pleading "don't erase me because it's messy" to full surrender. It's fitting that an artist who named themselves after a tendency to fidget has created an album that refuses to stay nervy - instead demanding love and re-engagement with what was and what is to come.
NBA COMP: 2018 CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Led by the greatness of LeBron in his mid-30s, the rest of the team was seen as has-beens who he dragged to their 4th straight finals. The defining moment was JR Smith wasting the waning seconds of Game 1, ridiculed for ruining their chances. But that team carried deeper struggles - Kevin Love battling panic attacks and depression, JR dealing with his own demons and public perception as unreliable.
The real story came after: JR found forgiveness, won another chip with Lebron, and went back to college, fulfilling lifelong goals. Love became a mental health advocate, proving vulnerability could be strength. They learned that showing up as messy, struggling humans was more powerful than perfect facades. Like LeBron anchoring that team, Duffy serves as the emotional center here, with skilled collaborators who know when to step back and let the star shine. But unlike that Cavs team, this collaboration actually succeeds.