Hannah Mae – Rode Draad | soundsfromthedarkside

Get ready for some Dutch music this time, courtesy of singer/songwriter Hannah Mae.

Hannah Schoonbeek, better known under her artist name Hannah Mae, is a relatively new voice in the Dutch music scene. Having started out as a singer/songwriter with a more country and western orientation, she switched to singing in her native language back in 2022 with De Kerkstraat, probably not coincidentally the opening track of her now freshly released debut album Rode Draad (which translates to Red Thread), a remarkably concise, thirty minute record that somehow still counts ten short and radio-friendly tracks.

I’m not usually one for music sung in Dutch, save a song here and there, and I usually find the local scene more grating and annoying than anything else. Nine out of ten Dutch language songs I happen to hear on the radio make me want to tear off my ears, especially when they’re being played to death by the local radio stations. And since the radio station at work is hell bent on grinding those few good songs (and the million bad ones at that) well into the ground, I’m sure I’ll find myself sick to death of Hannah Mae within no time as well.

Until that happens, however, radio hits like Wat Wil Je Van Mij, a collaboration with Belgian pop star Metejoor, Ik Wil Dat Je Liegt (again with a duet with a Belgian; Maksim this time) or the title track had me grab for my phone repeatedly to check the station’s playlist in order to find out what song was playing exactly, and not because it annoyed me; a thing I also do from time to time, just to know your enemies, so to say. Especially the wonderful, bittersweet Waterdicht had me rearing my head. It’s an almost serenely quiet, folksy acoustic song about having the courage to show your weaknesses, be open about your emotions, not giving up and accepting help when you need it most. It really hit home at a time I found myself in emotional turmoil last year, and it can still reduce me to a sobbing mess on occasion.

It’s a large part of what makes Rode Draad work for me, because it hits home on a deeply emotional level. These are songs about heartbreak (Ik Wil Dat Je Liegt), loss (Zonder), grief (Als Jij Me Nu Kon Zien), doubt (Rookgordijn), family (Je Kleine Meisje) and trying to tie the past to the present and finding a place to call home (Deze Plek). Delicate subjects all packed into small, pretty and primarily acoustically driven songs. The music is good, written by Hannah Mae together with a plethora of well-known co-writers like Simon Leferink, who has his fingerprints on just about every Dutch radio song right now, and Daniel Lohues of the band Skik, amongst others. The thing is though, the songs are actually good. The delicacy of songs like Rookgordijn or Waterdicht shine mostly through Hannah Mae’s wonderful voice, putting just the right emotion to the lyrics when needed, but the less is more approach when it comes to the arrangements and production really help making already good songs a little more special.

Of course, Hannah Mae is, at least in part, an industry plant, and that sounds more harsh than I mean it to be. But she, and Rode Draad as a result, is so heavily plugged on Dutch radio that it raises certain questions. It’s an album by committee which I would usually oppose to reviewing on this site, on which we more often champion the underdogs instead.

Thing is, however, that Rode Draad is a damn good album which I actually really like. Hannah Mae deserves all the success she enjoys at the moment, even if that means having to open for the likes of Susan & Freek or Miss Montreal and I hope she can rise above that. But in the end, Rode Draad is thirty minutes of really pretty songs with lyrics that really hit a sweet spot somehow, and sometimes that’s enough.

Label: Spark Records

Buy it here: https://hannahmae.merchstore.nl/

Track listing: