Meredith Johnston, the singer-songwriter-producer at the heart of indie project Warm Human, has announced a new album, Hamartia, set for release on October 11 via Chicago mainstay Sooper Records. This marks her first album for Sooper and with a label. Produced and written by Johnston, along with Conor Mackey (Lynyn, NNAMDI, Mobobody), the album follows last year’s alternative rock-leaning Hometown Hero and swings back towards Warm Human’s more electronic roots, while retaining some guitar-infused elements from the former.
An often sarcastic and nearly absurd level of self-awareness is evident throughout Hamartia, a literary term from the ancient Greek tradition meaning the fatal flaw that inevitably leads to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine. These tragic characters often find redemption from their hamartia in a deus ex machina… a device that Warm Human also weaves throughout the album. Hamartia is laden with references to the flawed figures, storylines, and plot devices of literary tragedies throughout the ages; reference points for the self-mythologizing of Johnston’s own flaws and tragedies, which she lays bare in an almost too-much-information display that is as deviously fun as it is psychologically disquieting. However, self-awareness and literary ornamentation don’t always have to be somber, and some of the best songs on Hamartia show a more playful side of Johnston. The first single, ‘Love 2 Hate,’ which was mixed by Grammy Award Winning Engineer & Producer Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, The Linda Lindas, M83), is an up-tempo, irresistible Do Revenge cut about the importance of embracing your own negativity from time to time. Johnston notes:
“This record is about my fatal flaw of always hating myself no matter how much better I get. ‘Love 2 Hate’ is the cornerstone song of the record, reflecting how deliciously good it feels to turn your self-hatred onto someone or something else, even if the relief only lasts for a couple of minutes.”
The song arrives with a video directed by Johnston & Dana Shihadah where Warm Human personifies a mix of characters inspired by Marie Antoinette, Mozart and Salieri (“The O.G. hater”, as Johnston calls him). Sitting in her high castle of hater-dom, Johnston looks down on all the things she hates in the world, barely remembering that the thing she hates most of all is herself. All while eating cake and dancing.
Hamartia:
- Mercy Me
- Father Father
- Love 2 Hate
- Wait
- Hamartia
- My Moods!!
- Holding The Flame
- Dramamine
- 2 Steps
- Maybe
