Emily Jane White is an American 'dark folk' singer-songwriter from Californ… Read Full Bio ↴Emily Jane White is an American 'dark folk' singer-songwriter from California. From a beginning in 2006, she released her debut album in 2007, a follow-up in 2009, and her third album in 2011. Influenced by American blues, folk, and the mythologies of different cultures along with contemporary female singer/songwriters such as Kate Bush, she has been compared to Chan Marshall of Cat Power and Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. While such comparisons to contemporaries are frequent, White's music owes a clear debt to classic female jazz and blues singers such as Billie Holiday.

White's haunted blues quickly found a home on Oakland's Double Negative Records with them only hearing her four-track demo. Fooling around with music since pre-school, White started on piano around the same time she learned to read, eventually picking up the guitar during her college days.

After graduation White moved to Bordeaux, France, where she performed with a bevy of independent French artists further honing her songwriting skills. Upon returning stateside, she moved to SF and began recording four-track demos formulating the songs that would ultimately become her debut album, Dark Undercoat.

Her second album entitled Victorian America was released in 2009 in France (and in 2010 in the U.S.). it was written largely in San Francisco and Oakland.

Her third album entitled Ode to Sentience was released in 2011.

www.emilyjanewhite.com

HANDS
Emily Jane White Lyrics

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Hands are all around me
I took a walk and one became three
Hands are all around me
You ain't never seen
You ain't never seen
And in your face
Tightened lace
And below

Vertigo
You caught my bad dream
You caught my bad dream
Aaaaah X4
A deathly guise took you by night
And those hands turned the tide
You were harmed by unsaintly arm
We will take you in our arms
This ain't no dream
This ain't no dream
Dream

Dream
Dream

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Emily Jane White's song "Hands In" reflect the feeling of being trapped and overwhelmed by one's surroundings. The repetition of "hands are all around me" suggests a sense of encroachment and the feeling of being suffocated by something. The song starts with the singer taking a walk, but the repetition of the key phrase, "hands," points to the way the natural world has a way of closing in on us, and how, like the hands in question, it can feel inescapable.

The second verse of the song seems to present an image of confinement; the "tightened lace" in "your face" suggests something restrictive, while "below vertigo" implies dizziness or disorientation. Through all this, "you caught my bad dream" suggests that the singer could be falling asleep, or perhaps the hands are closing in and amplifying their anxiety. By the time we get to the chorus, Emily's voice intensifies, sounding more like a warning against the looming danger.

The third verse highlights the potential danger that these disembodied arms can hold, with the notion of a "deathly guise" taking someone into their arms. And yet despite the apparent threat, the singer still sings that "we will take you in our arms," perhaps implying that the hands encircling them could still lead to safety rather than danger. The song ends with a repetition of the word "dream," suggesting that the nightmare of the song's subject may not be over yet.

Line by Line Meaning

Hands are all around me
I feel overwhelmed and surrounded by the world around me.

I took a walk and one became three
The amount of stimuli around me increased suddenly and unexpectedly.

You ain't never seen
You have never experienced what I'm going through.

And in your face
The overwhelming stimuli is right in front of me and persistent.

Tightened lace
The pressure I am feeling is constricting and suffocating.

And below
I am also feeling pressure from underneath me or from my past.

Vertigo
This overwhelming feeling is making me dizzy and disoriented.

You caught my bad dream
You are witnessing the nightmare I am experiencing.

A deathly guise took you by night
A dark and threatening presence overtook you during the night.

And those hands turned the tide
Those threatening hands took control and changed the course of things for the worse.

You were harmed by unsaintly arm
You were hurt by the evil actions of someone else.