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Photo: Luke Rogers

Nashville-based artist and songwriter Hannah Cole is embracing bitterness in her newest EP, Big Bite. 

The title track “Big Bite” invites us into the moody allure of Cole with a wide soundscape bristling with grungy grit and biting riffs. The bass groans in the low end, while electric guitars converse in varying shades of melancholic resentment. Layers of harmonies supernova the chorus with coexisting brightness and low, brooding tones. 

There are elements of Soccer Mommy-esque bubble grunge to be found in Cole’s sound, sprinkling feminine rage into an alternative soundscape. But it’s the darkness that really brands this EP with the signature of Cole—the guitars that somehow sit like a pit in your stomach while simultaneously lighting a fire in your chest. It’s maroon in essence, slightly sullen but rich and vibrant in sound. 

Cole picks up a bit of a pop pace in “Nuisance,” lifting us out of the relative gloom of “Big Bite,” as driving drums and rhythmic guitars propel us onward. The treatment of the soundscape is an interesting facet of Cole’s style, but it’s especially captivating in this song. We start out dialed in close to the sound, almost as if she is singing hush-toned secrets through the radio effect on the vocals. Then, going into the pre-chorus, the reach of the sound multiplies, and suddenly every corner of the track is flush with aching guitars and slight distortion. 

“Hilda” presents its soul on a platter of ambient synths and a cyclical, rhythmic progression. Cole rarely strays from vulnerability, but the production of this song really lets her breathe into the intimacy of the lyrics, inviting listeners to choke down the hard pill of adulthood alongside her. “But if life is getting old forever, at least we’re getting older together,” she confidently sings.

Closing out the EP, “Melt” picks up from the soft ground of “Hilda,” and then guides us hand-in-hand back to a place of moodiness. “Melt” ends Big Bite with a little fire of resentment burning alongside melancholy, a productive flame of spite deepened by the grunge guitar tones. For one final song, listeners can bask in cathartic bitterness as Cole muses on the push and pull of loving and hating someone in equal amounts. 

Listen to Big Bite below: