Why it's Song of the Day
"I'm trapped inside my body / I can't tell anybody." That is the line at the heart of "Hunter I", and Alas de Liona keeps circling it. "I'm not a social demon / I'm not a silver tongue / An empty shell of freedom / But don't tell anyone."
The chorus asks for help in a strange, haunted way: "Hunter take my affect / Make it seem like I'm awake / Grief and love are abject / I've been dredging up the lake." Later the search turns physical: "I'm tearing up the floorboards / I'm looking for a box / What will I find inside it / Another ticking clock." The music does not sound trapped at all. It is uptempo, dark and danceable, with touches of 80s pop and post-punk.
"Hunter I" is the first taste of Noble Rot, the second album by the American-born, Scotland-based artist, who uses vampire imagery on the record to talk about alienation and not being able to speak your truth. The song was written by Alas de Liona and Matt Hodges and engineered and produced by Rod Jones at Post Electric Studio. For the video, she built a set in her own living room, made the papier-mâché masks and costumes herself and baked a cake as a prop. "Hunter I" came out on 2 October 2026, and we added it to Lonely & Broke on 20 October.
That is why it is Song of the Day. A song about not being able to say what is wrong, that you can still dance to.
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Lines from the song
- An empty shell of freedom
- But don't tell anyone
- Hunter take my affect
- Make it seem like I'm awake
- Grief and love are abject
- I've been dredging up the lake
