We aren’t just our own worst enemies; we’re our own worst critics as well, and on Hank Heaven’s “Plan 2,” the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter tries a little tenderness with a tender indie twang.
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Stream: “Plan 2” – Hank Heaven
I’m doing better as soon as I remember, but i keep on forgetting the plan…
If we are to take just one thing away from Hank Heaven’s new single, let it be a reminder to show ourselves compassion.
We aren’t just our own worst enemies; we’re our own worst critics as well, and on “Plan 2,” the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter tries “a little tenderness,” as Otis Redding once put it – all with a charismatic, tender twang.
We can hate ourselves for falling back on bad habits; we can despise the person we see in the mirror, wallow in self-pity, go hard on our faults, self-shame and self-blame. Or we can acknowledge that change takes time; we can practice patience and empathy, and remember that being human means being perfectly imperfect: Mistakes are just a natural part of life.
Miller High Life,
Champagne of Beers
Thinkin’ I might be the top dog around here
Walk with my head high
and a girl to my right
The love of my life
Just for the night
I’m gettin’ better as soon as I remember
But I keep on forgetting the plan
Got the itch, I forget
I go out, I get pissed
I go home, I get kissed
Get the ick, I feel sick
Say that line once more with my head on the floor,
yeah I’m doin’ better as soon as I remember
But I keep on forgetting the plan
Released April 4, 2024, “Plan 2” is a charming, churning, and emotionally charged revelry. Hank Heaven’s dramatic and dreamy first song of the year heralds a name change following last year’s Call Me Hank (Deluxe), the expanded edition of their 2022 debut EP, Call Me Hank – released under the mononymous moniker, Hank.
“Cool, confident, and achingly unfiltered, Call Me Hank is a dazzling coming-of-age record full of raw passion and real pain, cathartic country and hypnotic hyperpop, and everything in-between,” Atwood Magazine wrote in a feature published in July of last year.
Hank found their voice in stories that bridged reality and fantasy and songs that blurred genre lines. Sounds, styles, and worlds collided on the passionate and raw, feverish and fragile Call Me Hank, a singular introduction that came into being with the help of Hippo Campus’ dynamic frontman Jake Luppen (who produced the record) and co-writer Raffaella Meloni, who performs as Raffaella (Atwood Magazine featured her EP, LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (ACT II), earlier this year).
Hank, Luppen, and Meloni have clearly hit their stride as a team, and their creative well runs deep: “Plan 2” is another product of the trio’s collaboration, bearing a great deal of sonic resemblance to the equally twangy “Call Me Hank.” Yet whereas that earlier song established Hank’s identity and artistry while romanticizing small town life, “Plan 2” is a cool, confident, and bold – a hard-hitting introspective eruption picking at scars and poking at (perceived) follies. It’s cheeky and brash, yet still brutally honest and achingly vulnerable.
And if I can’t self medicate
I probably won’t sit and meditate
Get my hands real clean, I got nasty
I’m a saint, I’m a star
I’ll tell you who you are
When I’m drunk,
I don’t think I will say everything
I’ll play it like a game,
what was honest now a shame
And a weight I was wrong
How ya been? Been so long
“I wrote ‘Plan 2’ extremely frustrated,” Hank tells Atwood Magazine. “I knew I wanted to make better, wiser decisions in how I lived my life, but it seemed that I kept making the same mistakes over and over again. ‘Plan 2’ explores forms of relapse while trying to heal. The song acts as a reminder that growth and healing means taking a couple steps backwards sometimes.”
They continue, “I wanted to release this song as an introduction to my next project about shining a light on the shadow self (the part of us we repress or refuse to acknowledge) and how it feels to poke at it and eventually accept it.”
‘Plan 2’ explores forms of relapse while trying to heal. The song acts as a reminder that growth and healing means taking a couple steps backwards sometimes.
The last time we covered Hank, we were solidly buckled in for the long haul, knowing it would surely be a wild ride.
What we couldn’t know, back then, is just how much fun Hank’s innermost reckonings could possibly be. “Plan 2” is a radiant, spirited reckoning with the artist’s “worst” parts, and yet from a musical standpoint, this is undoubtedly the artist at their very best – impassioned, invigorated, and deeply self-aware.
Better still, “Plan 2” is an inspirational, empowering reminder to: enjoy (responsibly) the occasional Miller High Life, and – more importantly – to be kind to yourself. It’s okay if you keep on forgetting the plan; in the words of Hank Heaven, you’ll still be doin’ better as soon as you remember.
Get lost in the tender twang of “Plan 2” (what was “Plan 1”? Maybe that’s the point), and stay tuned for more to come from Hank Heaven as they unveil what is sure to be a stellar, stunning sophomore EP later this year!
Got the itch, I forget
I go out, I get pissed
I go home, I get kissed
Get the ick, I feel sick
Say that line once more with my head on the floor,
yeah I’m doin’ better as soon as I remember
But I keep on forgetting the plan
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Stream: “Plan 2” – Hank Heaven
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© Danica Robinson
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