Over the past few weeks, I found that I was revisiting a band that I listened to a lot my sophomore year. Hiatus Kaiyote. Hiatus Kaiyote is a jazz/funk band from Melbourne, Australia. The Lead singer Nai Palm, born Naomi Saalfield, bassist Paul Bender, Simon Mavin playing keyboard, and drummer Perrin Moss, all comprise this wonderful band. Nai Palm and Paul Bender met after one of Palm’s solo shows and soon after duetted together and resultingly formed Hiatus Kaiyote. I’ve been listening to HK since about October 2023 and over that time I’ve gone through almost their entire discography.
Canopic Jar
Canopic Jar is one of my favorites because of the eerie melody and the poetic lyrics. It is the second track on an EP of the same name. The instrumentals of the song remind me of a suspenseful and almost… halloween-esque scene? That’s the best phrase I can think of to describe it. A Canopic Jar is a type of vessel used by ancient Egyptians to preserve their organs and by extension their souls for the afterlife. HK uses this idea of a canopic jar to symbolize preserving a relationship for another time, to come back to. This is shown by the lyric “I’ll keep your heart in canopic jar.”
Blood and Marrow
Blood and Marrow is the 12th track on HK’s album, Mood Valiant. Being the last track, it provides a dynamic ending to the album, moving through upbeat instrumentals and then tapering off at the end to provide a resounding finale to Mood Valiant. My favorite lyric from this song is “You could get through to the blood and marrow/ deeper than a cinder in snow.” Granted that lyric repeats plentifully but it doesn’t take away the meaning that this “you” can reach the singer’s deepest parts of themself.
Love Heart Cheat Code
Love Heart Cheat Code is the title track of HK’s most recent album, with the same name. Love Heart Cheat Code is like a musical poem, repeating lyrics in a sort of chant and an upward beat that doesn’t make it seem repetitive, at least to me. I find that I can’t stop thinking about this one line “Hotter than lava/ Slicker than lightning,” no matter how hard I try. I don’t know what it is about that line, but it’s like a worm in my brain.
Laputa
The song ‘Laputa’ is one of the more auditorily interesting songs to me, filled with deep imagery and a flowing beat, it pays tribute to the Ghibli film “Castle in the Sky.” In this film, there is a floating island named “Laputa.” This song provocatively illustrates a sort of longing for that island, or the idea of it.
Cinnamon Temple
Cinnamon Temple is one of my favorites because it blends many genres. This one feels very punk-inspired, and that draws me to it because I do listen to a good bit of punk music. My mom has told me that it sounds very chaotic, but I think that’s what makes me love it. I find that it’s very cathartic to move to the beat of this song. It is the 10th song on LHCC and begins the departure from Hiatus Kaiyote’s regular style into a more guitar-heavy and rock inspired vibe. This journey only really lasts for two songs, Cinnamon Temple and White Rabbit (which is a cover of another song of the same title by Jefferson Airplane), but I’d love to see HK take a deeper foray into this style.
Anyways, that’s my music rant! I plan to write many more of these, so stay tuned!
Much love,
Jude ♡
I really like bloody meadow.