Faith Eliott - "an ode of unrequited love from a hagfish to a giant isopod"

Photo by Flannery O'Kafka

A song called "an ode of unrequited love from a hagfish to a giant isopod" would have to be pretty awful for us not to cover it. Luckily, the latest from Faith Eliott is pretty great. The Minneapolis-born, Scotland-based artist's latest single is a blend of folk and singer-songwriter, but in a much more DIY way. While there are some elements of whimsy and twee in the single, I couldn't truly categorize it as either of those. At times, it's surprisingly straightforward and borders right on the mainstream. At others, it's a much more inventive and alt-folk adjacent song. "an ode of unrequited love from a hagfish to a giant isopod" is the greatest love song about a hagfish ever recorded.

Faith Eliott says about their latest single:

“A classic case of an anxious/avoidant attachment relationship dynamic. Hagfish are soft and spineless. They have four hearts and exude tremendous amounts of slime when threatened. They burrow into carcasses to devour them from the inside with their retractable dental plates. The isopod is like a giant sea-woodlouse. They live very solitary lives. They have a tough, armoured exoskeleton and can go years without eating. In this song, the anxiously attached hagfish sacrifices its boundaries to pine with unhinged abandon for the emotionally unavailable, avoidant isopod."

You can watch the visualizer for "an ode of unrequited love from a hagfish to a giant isopod" below. dryas is due out May 30 on Lost Map Records, and is available for pre-order through Bandcamp. For more on Faith Eliott, check out the artist's website.