Hannah Hu & The Specials – Listening Wind

12th May 2023 · 2020s, 2021, Music, Reggae

Hannah Hu and The Specials perform their spellbinding reggae-fied version of the Talking Heads song Listening Wind from their classic album Remain In Light.

This must have been one of Terry Hall’s last TV appearances; possibly the last. And it’s magical. His contribution is crucial, even though it is limited to harmonies.

I chanced upon it while looking up Hannah Hu*, who is headlining a show at the end of the month at my nearest venue, supported by my friend Nathalia in her solo electro guise as DRIFT.

This was the first thing I found by her on YouTube and it’s just spellbinding; entirely in the spirit of the Talking Heads original, yet completely different from their version on Remain In Light.

Turns out her other stuff is great too – in the emotive torch song style – and that she has worked not only with The Specials, on their 2021 album Protest Songs, from which this is taken – and which I must confess passed me by completely.

She’s also sung with Primal Scream and Richard Hawley, the latter on Acid Klaus’s spectacularly titled (and pretty good) album Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory Of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer Melvin Harris.

I’m looking forward to seeing both of them at The Waiting Room in Stokey on 30 May. And I urge anyone else in the neighbourhood to go along too.

* I’d apologise for that ‘Hu who’ bit except her own website has a tab that reads: “Who’s Hu?”