Tadhg Williams – The Hope Song (2021)
Songwriter and poet Tadhg Williams returns with his heart strapped firmly to his sleeve in a new stripped-back single called ‘The Hope Song’. The earnest track was written when Williams was just 18, at a time when he had first begun experimenting with songwriting. It tells the story of a fast-moving trans-Atlantic relationship he had then and his reflections on the nature of home and time, all the while longing for a love on the other side of the sea.
The now 22-year-old opens the song with a lonesome, twinkling piano melody which sounds like raindrops falling in slow motion, like the “droplets of moments” he hopes won’t “melt too fast”. Williams’s raspy voice has gentle confidence as he sings with a tinge of nostalgia and naivety. The heartfelt wishes and wants of his younger self are laid bare as he calls out to his once trans-Atlantic lover, “home is where the heart lies and I hope it lies with me.”
‘The Hope Song’s bare and naked beginnings give room for its cinematic orchestration to build and fill with texture, awash with strings, a chorus of oohs and a steady drumbeat. The music swells and swells, only to calm once more like fleeting ridges in a vast ocean. Williams’s latest release is an honest expression of hope and yearning, it’s comfort music for the soul inspired by the likes of Richard Hawley, Elbow and a darker Damien Rice – so eat your heart out. The joyous piece of music will remind you to appreciate and cherish home as a feeling more so than a physical place.
Find out more about Tadhg Williams on his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
