Today, Philadelphia’s Julia Pratt announces her new EP Family Feud with the release of ‘Chronos, Cruel Handler.’ Set to arrive on May 10 via RECORDS, Pratt bares her most core anguish through music, from the destruction of her family, to her lived experiences as a woman of color, in hopes that laying it all out there makes some sense of her journey. While applying R&B techniques to indie-folk, her sky-grazing music exists as a deeply necessary form of therapy that aims to let listeners know they were never truly alone.
‘Chronos, Cruel Handler’ centers Pratt’s beatific voice over lithe, looping guitar lines and shifting brushed percussion. Named for the ancient Greek mythological symbol of time, the track’s imagist lines center on domestic imagery and questions of fault, the energy ramping to a pained confrontation. “Product of the past/ Don’t you know they lied to you?” Pratt’s heavenly falsetto wonders, more in sorrow than accusation.
“‘Chronos’ is the personification of time, and that is exactly what this song represents. In some sense writing ‘Carolina’ felt like it killed a part of me, and ‘Chronos’ is what came after a period of reflecting on that death,” Pratt contemplates. “It arose from thinking about generational trauma and about my father. In this song I contrast our upbringings, and unpack the cycle that has repeated in both of our lives — the cycle that has most likely repeated over and over again in the lives of those that came before us as well.”
“Feeling small and misunderstood, shunned and shut down, repressed and silenced. In this song, I come to understand how that led to the violence and destruction that was unleashed on me as a child. I empathize deeply, and yet it was wrong and undeserved.”
Another piece of Family Feud’s short film, today’s single arrives with an official video directed by Samantha D’Alessio and edited by Keats. Appearing as a ghost of her former self, Pratt moves in and out of flashbacks, further extending the theme of endless time in ‘Chronos, Cruel Handler’.