Hemi Hemingway - Strangers Again

Hemi Hemingway returns with his debut album Strangers Again, the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed The Lonely Hunter EP. The alias of Shaun Blackwell, Hemi Hemingway was introduced to the world in 2021 with The Lonely Hunter EP, six songs of lush, 60s-inspired classical pop. But on his debut album, Strangers Again, he reveals whole new acres of what he can do.

Strangers Again is an album that grew up on different sides of the world. Hemingway started work on the record in London. He began in autumn 2020, recording as he wrote, in a little flat in Hackney. In late 2021, he returned home to New Zealand, for his first post-pandemic visit, and ended up deciding to move back permanently (“I realised that New Zealand was kind of calling out to me”, he says).

It’s a record with the dramatic scope of an epic novel, taking in love, loss, and an indigenous person’s place in a changing New Zealand, with the magnetism of the character Hemi holding things together in the eye of the storm. That package comes wrapped up in perfectly-crafted, leather-clad rock’n’roll ballads, a joyride through all his musical touchstones, an adventure through all that makes up Hemi Hemingway.

PNKSLM105

August 18, 2023

1. Alone In the Morning Alley
2. Strangers Again
3. Dreamin' of You
4. Green Envy
5. It’s So Cruel (Lovin' You)
6. January Lake #3
7. Now That You Know (We Can’t Pretend You Don’t)
8. Hopelessly Dependent On You
9. Burn Your Fires
10. Don' Wana Hurt U