Hand Habits Announces New Album 'Blue Reminder'

Hand Habits, the project of LA singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Meg Duffy, will release Blue Reminder on August 22 via Fat Possum. The LP marks Duffy’s first project since 2023’s Sugar the Bruise, and it was recorded in Duffy’s home city with Alan Wyffels, Gregory Uhlmann, Olivia Kaplan, Blake Mills, Tim Carr, Daniel Aged, and SML’s Joshua Johnson and Anna Butters. “When I reflect on how society can punish or cruelly imply a brokenness to anyone who lives in the margins of a limited range of what they consider normal, or imply they are the way they are because of a defect or illness, it’s hard not to internalize some of this way of thinking,” Duffy said about the album in a press release.

“I’ve done a lot of work to accept myself for who I am, and that I deserve to live as the truest version of myself, and that my mistakes and shortcomings are human, not as a result of my identity. That it is possible for queer/trans people to have healthy, loving, passionate, and functional lives and relationships. That we can be in and contribute to the community. That we can be loved for, not in spite of who we are. Even though we are living a nightmare right now in a lot of ways, this record is about living the dream. It’s a reminder that the dream is possible.”

Lead single “Wheel of Change” finds Duffy turning away from the synthy experiments of “The Bust of Nefertiti” and “Something Wrong,” returning instead to the guitar-facing strengths that greatly colored records like placeholder and Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void). Duffy says of “Wheel of Change”: “Both lyrically and in its production, this song is about the impossibility of return—you can’t go back to the way things were, no matter how much you might want to hold on to a time, or a feeling, or a person. Lyrically there’s a kind of desperation (“I need it now more than ever”), but in it there’s also a request, “don’t take it away just yet,” which is not a question but a demand, and I wanted the production to reflect that. That in longing, there can be this sharper, wild edge. Like, no I need this, give it to me, don’t take it away.”

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Read my 2023 feature on Hand Habits here, and listen to “Wheel of Change” below.

Blue Reminder Artwork:

Blue Reminder Tracklist:
More Today
Wheel of Change
Nubble
Dead Rat
Jasmine Blossoms
Way It Goes
(Forgiveness)
Beauty 62
Bluebird of Happiness
Blue Reminder
Quiet Summer
Living Proof

Hand Habits’ Upcoming Tour Dates:
07/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Orpheum ^
08/21 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s ~
08/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ 2220
09/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
09/20 – New York, NY @ Nightclub 101
09/21 – Washington, DC @ DC9
09/23 – Albany, NY @ Lark Hall
09/24 – Montreal, QC @ POP MONTREAL
09/26 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Garage
09/27 – Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag
09/28 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
09/30 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Andy Warhol Museum
10/01 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
10/15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
10/17 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
10/18 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
10/21 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
10/23 – Healdsburg, CA @ Little Saint
10/30 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon *
11/03 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus *
11/04 – Hamburg, DE @ Mojo Club *
11/05 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
11/07 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall *
11/08 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 TV Studio *
11/09 – Leeds, UK @ Project House *
11/11 – London, UK @ Roundhouse *
11/12 – Bristol, UK @ Trinity Centre *
11/13 – Dublin, IE @ The National Stadium *
^ supporting Yeah Yeah Yeahs
~ supporting Japanese Breakfast
* supporting Perfume Genius

Hand Habits Announces New Album Blue Reminder, Hear: “Wheel of Change”

The LP is out August 22 via Fat Possum Records.