Fran Shares New Single "Palm Trees", Sophomore Album 'Leaving' is Out January 20th

Chicago’s Fran are releasing their third album single, “Palm Trees” today. Fran’s songwriter, Maria Jacobson, evokes the imagery of a burning palm tree as she wrestles with the catastrophes of climate disaster. The song was born out of a 2019 article that stated the world had a year and a half to figure out climate change. The implications of this song coming out in 2022, with that benchmark, and each one before it, far gone, lends “Palm Trees” a somber tone. Jacobson’s mesmerizing vocals mingle with Ben Boye’s deft piano alongside the swirling chorus of Macie Stewart’s violin, and Whitney Johnson’s viola, disguising the lament at the heart of “Palm Trees”. Throughout Fran’s new album Leaving, Jacobson lays bare her despair for the world she once knew; without the power to change the trajectory of collapse, she’s pleading deeply. Jacobson is eulogizing the world she knew as she watches it slip further away each passing day.
On the song Jacobson says; “I wrote “Palm Trees” during a hot summer in 2019 after reading an article about how we only had 18 months to “figure out” climate change. That deadline has long since passed, and our inaction has drawn us closer to some unknown scary future where we can’t guarantee what reality will be outside our front doors. So, “Palm Trees” is a plea. It’s about holding on to what I understand, wishing the natural world could stay how I remember it.”