Hannah Cole transforms MMA into a gamble, a fight and a minor identity crisis, all set against a backdrop of thunderous guitars. The first single from her debut album, Switchbacks, has a distinctly grungy, ’90s-inspired sound. Its opening vaguely recalls The Cranberries’ “Zombie”, although it soon expands into a space where indie rock, dream pop and shoegaze coexist.
The song maintains a steady pulse beneath an almost carefree melody, while clean and distorted layers alternate to create brief moments of calm before unleashing their full force. There are echoes of Bully’s alternative rock, particularly in the way the distortion is carefully measured, as well as of The Smashing Pumpkins’ layered guitars. Here, the fuzz feels more emotional than aggressive, gradually building around Hannah’s soft, distant vocals and creating the impression that she is singing from the eye of a storm.
The lyrics portray success as a slot machine that makes it impossible to know when to walk away. Blows, injuries, snakes and trophies form a landscape in which ambition becomes a fight. The line “I really wish that I could see myself” reveals the deepest wound of all: losing sight of who you are.
The music video reinforces this interpretation through a lo-fi aesthetic steeped in the visual language of the ’90s. Grainy, out-of-focus images of rodeos, dead animals and skateboarders falling are pieced together like fragments of a deteriorating home video. Memory becomes as blurred as the identity at the heart of the song, until nothing feels entirely real.
The ending draws all those layers together into a loud, liberating catharsis. After so many blows and wagers, “MMA” ultimately feels like an attempt to find her way back to herself, leaving us eager to discover how far Hannah Cole will take these ideas on Switchbacks.
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