Emmy The Great's 'Mary' Is A Beautiful Hong Kong Visitation

"This was the last moment of calm before the city changed beyond recognition..."

*Emmy The Great* has handed Clash a neat preview from her incoming solo album.

'April / 月音' is out on October 9th through Bella Union, and it could be the most explicitly autobiographical work from this artist yet.

A wonderful journey into the heart of Hong Kong, it's a treatise on identity, one that dips into the past while reflecting an uncertain future.

There's two instincts coalesce on 'Mary', a song about a fortune teller that explores Emmy The Great's relationship with the city of her birth.

As ever with Emmy's work, it's a beautifully pieced together composition, while her lyrical dexterity is able to pin-point the most nuanced of emotions.

She comments...

'Mary' is named for a Hong Kong fortune teller I met in Kowloon, who gave me the wrong fortune when I mixed up my Cantonese words. It was written in 2017, when I wandered Hong Kong’s neon-lit streets looking to explore my relationship with the city of my birth, unaware that this was the last moment of calm before the city changed beyond recognition. Maybe that’s why the song is about a fortune teller who can’t tell the future.

The song was later recorded in Brooklyn, with Jo Lampert, my friend and the star of David Byrne’s Joan of Arc, as ‘Mary’.

Check it out now.

Join us on the ad-free creative social network Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks, exclusive content and access to Clash Live events and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

Buy Clash Magazine