Expectations fall victim to hard realities in Francine Honey’s new double-barrelled single Press Reset & 2020 Vision — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“2020 Vision is a song about what was supposed to happen in 2020,” the Ontario-based singer-songwriter explains, while “Can’t Press Reset is a song that summarizes what has actually happened in 2020 and a transformational call to action.”
Like all of us, Honey had big plans for the year — some that were decades in the making, as she relates in the soulful piano ballad 2020 Vision. “It speaks to working towards a goal in your life and, to many of us, that is retirement,” she muses. “Looking forward to the days when you don’t have to work so hard to earn a living, when you are free to do what you want to do.”
“We are all working towards goals,” she continues. “For me, being a single mother and sole provider for my children, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t a burden for my children and would be able to retire with financial security, and 2020 was the year I had been working towards. I had all kinds of dreams and plans for what would happen, what I would do when I retired.”
And like all of us, those goals were instantly dashed when “the world, the whole year and all our plans went down the tubes,” as she chronicles in the gently chugging straight-up Americana folk-rocker Can’t Press Reset. “It is a song that speaks of the transformation that is required when more than just a simple fix is needed. Whether it is dealing with a world-wide pandemic, systemic racism, or with situations in your own life where you feel trapped and/or unable to breathe. It is a song that has lyrics with many layers if you are willing to dig down deep into the issues that lie ahead, and the question of what comes next?”
Like most of her work, both tracks are personal yet universal. And while they are unafraid to confront the darkness, they offer a light at the end of our current tunnel. Cut as always in Nashville with Grammy-nominated producer Neilson Hubbard (Mary Gauthier, John Prine, Jason Isbell) and a roster of first-call players — though Can’t Press Reset was finished in her home studio after the pandemic hit — the two songs are the latest preview of her upcoming fifth project entitled Unfinished Business.
Watch Can’t Press Reset and 2020 Vision above, hear more from Francine Honey below, and keep up with her on her website, Facebook and Instagram.
