M.T. Hadley Shares Visual for Poignant Frank Ocean-Approved Track "Janet"

Returning from his debut Empty album’s first single “Private Eye,” as well as the second cut “Reticent,” Frank Ocean co-signed Londoner M.T. Hadley has returned with a brand new music video for his 2016 track “Janet.” The off-kilter pop track originally surfaced during Frank’s blonded RADIO during the Summer of 2016, immediately drawing a newfound love for the experimental repertoire that Hadley had to offer.

Content-wise, “Janet” rattles listeners with an introspective look at the relationship between him and his late mother, who’s untimely death inspired the track. The artist recently shared the single’s inception with Crack Magazine:

The following year [her death] was a dismal haze. I had finally earned the right to mourn. Only a year after her death did I summon the courage to sing. I began writing “Janet” on a piano at a friend’s party. As other guests sat in bedrooms, drugging themselves intto the next day, I dragged myself up with this song…It had to be uplifting; an antidote to the bleak, matter-of-fact verses. Mothers are probably the first people in our lives to lie to us, claiming that we’re ‘special’ or that they’re so glad we happened. These tender falsehoods are unattainable once your mother is dead. You miss them, but always remember.

Sonically, the track relishes in a synth-heavy offering that treads the line of feel-good and melancholic, laying a hefty bedrock for Hadley’s poignant vocals to echo throughout. This remains staunchly showcased within the visual for the track, which captures the emotions of a “family holiday” — including all of its “joy and, perhaps, pain.”

You can watch the video for “Janet” above. M.T. Hadley’s debut studio album Empty arrives on November 8 via Empty/[PIAS].

For more music news, don’t miss Col3trane and Miraa May dropped a new single titled “Rendezvous.”

Here is “Janet”, a song you may have heard already. I first released it on the 16th of June 2016, three years after my mother died. Today I share it with a video I made together with Ciarán Wood and Jacek Zmarz. https://t.co/IEcnLzFMce

— 𝑴. 𝑻. 𝑯𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒚 (@MTHADLEY) November 5, 2019