What they have said about Subterfuge:

Media Shelf

Echoey piano goth pop with an electronic heartbeat. Pure creative genius! Bonus DVD disc features the eye feast of a video for "Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) Part II."
— Media Shelf

Morbid Outlook :

...This album is her unique brand of delicate etherea and yet is bolder than her previous releases. Rich melodies swirl with lyrics that paint poisonously vivid and unsettling imagery... Recommended to fans of bittersweet ethereal and devotees of finding beauty among decay.
— Mistress McCutchan of Morbid Outlook.

Graveconcerns:

Imagine walking into a haunted house and all you hear is the piano playing, the wind whipping through the white curtains and someone who is a cross between Siouxsie and Kate Bush singing. Voila!...Hannah Fury. In other words...divine!!
— Jules of Graveconcerns

Wears the Trousers:

Subterfuge is the most sinister thing to come out of Texas since the Bush Administration, and all the better for it... [P]erhaps the finest distillation of Fury's particular brand of musical malaise is the multimedia track 'Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) Part II.' Whether heard alone or in tandem with Chris Ohlson's creepy video featuring a pair of custom-made marionettes (The Queen of Hearts and Anathema Rose to their friends), it's an undeniably spine-tingling experience. So precisely layered are the distorted, whispery vocals, it's almost as if she were singing in parseltongue.
— Alan Pedder of Wears the Trousers.

High Bias:

"Je Taime," "A Latch to Open" and "Girls That Glitter Love the Dark" (best Fury song title ever) are glimmering, ethereal things, like the golden sparkles in which Zeus would take form to seduce earthly maidens. The deceptively pretty "My Next Victim" is a great example of Ms. Fury's patented lovely creep-outs. "Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) Part II" adds percussion and drive to swirling vocal overdubs that are the audio equivalent of wraiths filling the screen of a Tim Burton film.
— Michael Toland of High Bias.

Collected Sounds:

These songs are layered lush masterpieces, every single one of them. There's so much going on here I feel like I have to listen over and over and very loudly (or with headphones) just to hear even half of it... Let me just say the video is stunning. I watched it three times in a row. It was like I couldn't stop. There is something both creepy and wonderful about those puppets that are mesmerizing (that's them on the cover art). I love things that are beautiful and a bit scary at the same time and this whole record, but especially the video, is one of those things.
— Amy Lotsberg of Collected Sounds

Musical Discoveries:

... a dark, dreamy and epically romantic masterpiece... Fury's mixing of this album illustrates that she is an alchemist, with a unique vision all her own. The dense production washes over you but you cannot resist the sensation to drown in the sonic prisms, echoes and wails. There are layers upon layers of dreamy elements... The bonus "Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) Part II" DVD is a treat. Directed by Chris Ohlson, it features Scott Radke's marionettes — the Queen of Hearts and Anathema Rose. They co-star with Fury and create an atmosphere of desire and retribution. Evocative and haunting, it is a wonderful accompaniment to the EP...
— Jo Gabriel for Musical Discoveries

Venus:

Each song hints at danger or trauma, but Fury leaves them open to interpretation.
— Venuszine

Craig L. Gidney:

When we last heard from Ms. Fury, she set her dark tales against romantic piano balladry. Her voice was low and delicate, and she added a dark glamour to the girl and a piano subgenre. Her new six-song EP, Subterfuge, is something else entirely. There are elements of the romantic piano pieces, but they are drowned in claustrophobic loops and drum programs. Her whispery voice is augmented with echoes and overdubbed screams and moans, and she sing-speaks some of the words. Organs and weirdly tuned synths compete with the piano. The gallows humor quotient is upped: one of her couplets is 'My heart is like the Moulin Rouge/All lit up in subterfuge.' The new, dense production is perfectly suited to these tales of despair, self-loathing and ennui. It's a kaleidoscope of sound and imagery. Fury's new sound is more like the spooky experimentalism of Jarboe (Swans) than like Tori Amos. Beauty hides in the jagged shards.
— Craig L. Gidney

CD Baby listeners:

***** "True genuis! And a bonus dvd - at last - well worth the wait."
Reviewer: Carina
Yet another wonderful cd from the lovely Ms Fury. And finally, after waiting for what seems like ages, a dvd to go with it! The cd is excellent. So refreshing to find an artist that is "out there on her own". In today's music world where nearly everybody sounds (and looks) the same it is such a relief to find someone with the strength to be different and have the talent to pull it off. I look forward to many more releases and perhaps even more dvds? Please!

***** "Spellbinding"
Reviewer: Nicole Denise
Hannah has created the highest form of Art- that which moves the listener to the point where they wonder how music so magnificent can actually exist- and it does. Subterfuge's lyrics are intricate rhymes woven into rich melodies- melodies resonating with deep stellar texture and overlapping harmonies. Each song on every album Hannah released is a rare gem, each with its own iridescent tint and polished surface, reflecting intriguing worlds. Her lyrics stretch far beyond the limits of conventional imagination but yet speak so well of life's realities. If there is a Muse of Music, she has clearly chosen Hannah as the vehicle through which perfect songs are to reach our society. Where angels sing in the dark woods of hopeful beauty, there you will find Hannah's songs playing in the trees, and sonically walking with you.

*****
Reviewer: Crash
I knew that Hannah would meet dark ambient influences in her works. Hannah's Previous Works were awesome. But quite different, there was something in her voice, in her melodies, something creepy and dark, deeply pushed in the throat, which had to explode. Subterfuge is a sonic painting of this explosion. Hannah Fury, Coil, Swans, Early Nick Cave, there all travel now on the same boat, a roaming boat, slowly sinking, and their disturbing music is aimed at depicting the feeling of drowning. Hannah Fury sings for your blood, fears and guts.

***** "Awesome."
Reviewer: Anna Maria
Awesome glitter in the dark melodramatic lullabies. Not for the faint-hearted but boy are they cool. A gothic dream come true. Tori Amos scary little sister meets Diamanda Galas calm daughter.

A few MySpace comments:

Left by: Nico
The moment I began to listen to Girls that Glitter, a vine of thorns and veins sprung from the ground and slowly twined its way around my body, holding me captive, pressing into my flesh. The vine hesitated only a moment, before entering my ears, filling them with the most amazing, heartsickeningly beautiful music I could dare to imagine...you have accomplished something truly wondrous with this song...thank you...

Left by: DJ Misery Tree
My CD player doesn't have enough room to keep all of your albums on constant rotation. I haven't had an addiction like this to a single artist in two years (and those lasted six months each)! Dear Hannah, I shall say it again, you are a permant feature on The Happy Death radio show as long as I'm the DJ!
http://www.kbvr.com/ (live stream 10 pm-Midnight, PST)

A LastFM comment:

User: Iridescence
Hannah produces very melncholy piano music which is sometimes a bit trite but still beautiful. On her new EP she expands her musical horizons a bit with more electronic type things. [There is even a perhaps somewhat ill-conceived attempt at rap in one of the songs :)] But she still delivers plenty of what I expect, haunting ballads, with her ghostly, shimmery, totally unique and really indescribable vocals. Over-all this is a progression and a very good set of songs.

What they have said about The Thing That Feels:

Ethereality / spoonfed:amerika:

Back during the Woody Allen and Mia Farrow drama of the '90s, Farrow reportedly sent Allen (and presumably, her estranged daughter) an ornate Victorian-styled Valentine, complete with lace and frills. The beautiful Valentine also included razor blades and knives in its design. Hannah Fury's work has that feel — of delicacy masking torment. Lines like "No meathook is as bad as a hook in the heart," or "Don't speak / Don't support / Just quietly abhor me" hide in darkly romantic melodies, verbal razor blades. With its somnolent, hypnotic piano ballads about witches and vampires sung with delicate vocals, The Thing That Feels will undoubtedly remind you of Kate Bush and Tori Amos. But Fury's work, on closer inspection, has more of a cabaret feel. Where Bush is pyrotechnic fantasy and Amos is Technicolor psychodrama, Fury is drawing-room genteel. The piano chords ripple and circle back on each other; the phrasing is deliberate, her vocals soft. Fury is theatrical, but not histrionic. She works in charcoal tones and daguerreotype tints.

Five of Thing's songs are based on Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Fury takes on the psyche and voice of the green-skinned sorceress. These are songs of quiet madness and gentle obsession; like Maguire's novel, these songs suggest that the witch's crimes were based on insanity and loss of faith rather than evil. "I follow her [Dorothy] down the Yellow Brick Road / Chasing her now, for revenge, I suppose / She causes destruction wherever she goes" is one lyric. "And Your Little Dog Too" sounds particularly unsettling, with Fury's lightly processed voice creepily admonishing a child to surrender the Ruby Slippers.

Her love songs are like Farrow's twisted valentines; unrequited love and regret. Fury is an idealist in a cynic's clothing. "Away" appropriately moves away from the theme of romantic obsession; it's a lament for the late Jeff Buckley that weaves imagery of angels and muddy rivers into a song of transcendence. The closing song, "The Vampire Waltz," uses the scenario of a woman becoming a vampire as a metaphor for romantic ennui and disappointment.

The Thing That Feels is a rich, complex album in spite of its sparseness — one song is augmented by a bass, the other a cello. Beauty and darkness reside together, often illuminated by the spark of caustic wit.

— Craig L. Gidney

spoonfed:amerika

food4thought

Muruch:

Hannah Fury's album, The Thing That Feels, is at once uncanny and beautiful. The songs on the album are among the most haunting, delicate melodies I've ever heard. And many of the tunes were inspired by one of the most unusual novels ever written. Its literary inspiration aside, The Thing That Feels is dramatic, lovely, and imaginative.

Hannah Fury's music is truly unique. There's absolutely no other artist that I can think of to accurately compare her to, and I think that's a high compliment in any review. I first stumbled upon her music via Epitonic back in the 2000 when The Thing That Feels was initially released.

The title of the song "It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose" immediately caught my attention then, because Nessarose is the name of a character in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. I was excited to find that the novel was indeed the inspiration behind the song, and several others on The Thing That Feels. The novel, Wicked, is a dark and twisted take on the tale first set forth in Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz, retold from the Witch's point of view.

Back then, very few people seem to share my obsessive love of the novel that would eventually become the basis of the musical Wicked. When I first heard of Winnie Holzman's plans to write a musical based on the novel, I was disappointed to learn that Hannah Fury's songs would not be included in the show. So disappointed that it took years for me to to like the musical's soundtrack, because Hannah's album seems a much more accurate portrayal of the grim story of the novel. Hannah says she would love for her music to be incorporated into a film based on the book, if one is ever made. But I digress.

The album opens with "Not Like You". There's a classical element to the piano, but the mood is necromantic and slightly ominous due to Hannah's ghostly melodic vocals. "Love Today" follows with a slightly sweeter, but melancholy sound.

"Meathook" has very pretty vocals and piano that could play in a music box, yet there's such an eerie feeling to the song. "Of Longing" is a short piano instrumental that leads into "Let It Show". "Let It Show", "I Can't Let You In", "And Your Little Dog Too", "All Is Not Well", and "It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose" are the songs based on Gregory Maguire's novel about Elphaba, the so-called Wicked Witch. These five songs in particular are extraordinary, I truly don't know how to begin to describe them. The lyrics are heavy with references to the novel, so I'm not sure how they translate to those who haven't read it. I suspect that the otherworldly vocals and harmonic music are enough to carry the songs even if you are unfamiliar with the strange characters Hannah sings about.

"And Your Little Dog Too" is more than just a catchy title. From the opening line "Surrender, Dorothy," the song is the quintessentially creepy and peculiar track on the album. Sinister, yet amusing because of the subject matter. Whether you've read the novel or you've only seen the classic Judy Garland movie, how can you resist a song sung in the voice of the Wicked Witch threatening Dorothy over her dead sister's magical slippers? Though since The Wizard of Oz is my favourite movie and Wicked is one of my favourite books, it would be impossible for me not to adore this song.

"It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose" is the other grand song of the album, again narrated by Wicked's Witch, Elphaba. It begins as a vengeful murder ballad and slides into a bittersweet, resigned tone that is so fitting for the outcast character it's based upon.

"Of Longing and Otherness" is another piano instrumental, leading into the ethereal "Sweet Heart". "Away" is another song that at first seems simply pretty and orchestral, until you realize the macabre story being told in the lyrics.

The last track on the album, "The Vampire Waltz", was the first song that Hannah ever wrote. She was just sixteen when this dark tale of a vampire and his "eternal bride" found its way into her head. As with many of the songs on the album, the background voices echo and blend with Hannah's lead soprano vocals and antiquated piano to create a Gothic epic that lasts just over 8 minutes. Forget Wicked, there should be a musical based on The Thing That Feels.

This has been one of the rare opportunities when an artist that I've admired for years has been gracious enough to allow me to share their music here. I hope you all enjoy her songs as much as I do.

— Muruch

Additional review comment by J. Burka:
It may be worth noting that the title of "Of Longing and Otherness" is actually drawn from Wicked -- there's a scene when Elphaba is in college and she and her friends are sitting in a cafe and Elphaba sings a song; Maguire describes the haunting melody as being of longing and otherness... while most readers might read that as a brief, throwaway line, Hannah Fury shows how brilliantly she understands the source material when she picks up on that line and uses it to describe the intro/outro of her Wicked song cycle!

Outburn:

...Hannah Fury's minimal approach creates an elegant atmosphere of melancholy and Victorian beauty ... The Thing That Feels is a truly enchanting experience.
(Rating: 5 out of 5)

— Octavia

Outburn

Austin American-Statesman:

...she pares her sound down to piano and voice, adding color by overdubbing ethereal cries and whispers, haunting the songs like a ghost ... She's more interested in direct communication than poetic wordplay, stripping her lyrics down to their emotional essence ... The narrator of "Not Like You" (a song inspired by the Marvel Comics character Man-Thing) wraps loneliness around himself like a comforting cloak, while the singer of "Away" finds hope even in death. In a five-song set based on Wicked, Gregory Maguire's tragicomic retelling of the Wizard of Oz story from the Witch's point of view, the Witch accepts her fate not with melodramatic wailing but with grim resignation, calmly singing "And I thought that I had the secret to life, but I don't, do I?" Fury doesn't succumb to melancholy — the songs "Sweet Heart" and "Love Today" find inspiration in love without being sappy, and "Meathook" encourages defiance in a one-sided relationship ... Fury knows pain can be a source of strength, and on The Thing That Feels her characters grow stronger by the minute.

— Michael Toland

Austin American-Statesman

Amplifier:

...Fury's debut full-length disc (there was a 5-song EP Soul Poison in 1998) displays an artist with tremendous potential. With the exception of two cuts, Fury accompanies herself only on piano and multi-tracked backing vocals. The overall effect is haunting ... Fury's imagery is sometimes obscure, and at other times quite graphic (No meathook is as bad as a hook in the heart / A hole through the skin will not make you whole) ... The best moments on the record are the stellar two tracks that complete the album; "Away" is a love song to a drowning man and "The Vampire Waltz" a bizarre tale of seduction. Both burn with passion...

— Tom Semioli

CD Baby:

...This album is incredibly dark and beautiful. Ms. Fury's lyrics will take you to a surreal place. Her voice is so wonderful and to compare her talent to anyone else's is an injustice...

— Angelica Standley

...It's so rare for someone to walk the line between beautiful and sinister as Miss Fury does on this record.

— Eddie Munster

...This entire album, start to finish, is amazing and unsettling.

— Mr. Harker

Breathtakingly spooky.

— Shelley

CD Baby

MusicAustin:

...She uses a smooth and mellow singing style accompanied by fluid piano and surprisingly complex background vocals...

— Virginia DeBolt

musicaustin

Salt for Slugs:

Hannah Fury has a very strong musical style and does a great job of producing her own music in the studio ... Both albums are full of perfectly sung piano ballads...

— Joe

Austin INsite Magazine:

...the vocals, which are layered in ethereal melodies ... paired with driving piano rhythms, make this album a collection of well-written and complete compositions. (Grade: A)

— Kate Bennett

Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music:

Beautiful and fierce.

...utterly, delightfully eerie and haunted.    — Neile

...more lethal than dramatic. She's managed to successfully create a very interesting mood – beautiful, dark, haunting.    — J. Hanson

...Her voice is beautiful and quite sweet, but don't be fooled by it ... her lyrics are gloomy and can also be downright frightening at times ... Her haunting melodies can linger in your head for hours.    — Rosana

Wow. On first listen I loved this album and it has continued to grow on me. I especially like the 5-song cycle based on Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, but all the songs are hauntingly beautiful ... there isn't a bad track on the album.    — J. Hanson

...I found myself liking all the songs, without exception ... Beautiful, haunting and full of passion.    — Rosana

The Thing That Feels is utterly amazing...    — Neile

Ectophiles' Guide

What they have said about Soul Poison:

Ecto List:

The comment that brought Hannah Fury to my attention stated simply she was a Goth version of Tori, and I repeat it here, because after all it did the trick — it led to me ordering her discs. But I don't think it is very true. For starters, I don't really think of her as Goth. Gothic, Victorian — perhaps. As for resemblance to Tori, they are both women playing the piano, but beyond that, their paths diverge. Tori's songs, those that really matter, are so intensely personal that listening to them is much like attending some ritual sacrifice, blood and guts spilling everywhere. Soul Poison, on the other hand, is more like a book of Edgar Allan Poe's tales. It is certainly honest, but only because it makes no secret that these are tales told unashamedly for the purpose of evoking that delicious tingling feeling of fear and wonder running down your spine, not Tori-like public vivisection of her own psyche. The opener, "The Necklace of Marie Antoinette," is a perfect example, the tale of planned murder — her attraction to all things dark is clear, but I doubt the story is autobiographical. The next track, "Scars," turns out to be classic "Scarborough Fair," but the twist soon becomes clear: these are not the words I remember from Simon and Garfunkel! "Please don't go to Scarborough Fair / Violets, roses, thistles and vines / Remember me, I am still here / He was not a true love of mine" she sings, but she seems to be saying, somewhat impatiently, "well, get over it already!" rather than pleading for forgiveness. "Idaho" touches on that classic dillema: "And what if I loved you with all of my heart? / And what if my love wasn't good enough?" she asks. It's a good question and one I can certainly relate to, but she doesn't arrive at any conclusions either, just leaving me wondering instead while she moves on to "Eat the Dirt," for another dose of darkness and inner turmoil: "Run from these hands if you know what's good for you / I can't control the things I do..." And so it went. It is a fine record, I felt those tingles in the right places and I enjoyed them. But it was the final track, "The Last Piece of Cake," that suddenly made me doubt my interpretation. It starts as another Gothic tale flirting with the dark side, a story of a mother betrayed by her daughter, but then the story kind of just stops while she continues ... "This makes me want to believe in heaven and angels ... for mothers ... and hunchbacks ... and wolves / Please let me believe that she's happy ... and safe ... and warm..." It was only then it occured to me that it is after all possible despite their over-the-top Gothic setting that the darkness and pain and fear might be all too uncomfortably real. Or maybe not. Who knows? In the end, Hannah remains something of an enigma to me. But if it's true that a work of art is but a mirror held up to our faces, I think I flinched just a little at what I saw.

—Andrew Fries

Yeah Yeah Yeah:

Out of 500 CDs or so, this is completely its own creature ... An ambitious 5-song EP by a woman who deserves a major deal, really. Each song is magnificently produced and sung with passion. Wow. Unbelievable.

— Pat Pierson

Pop Culture Press:

My my, this young woman's album title and record company name are spot on ... "The Necklace of Marie Antoinette" quietly plots murder. "Scars" is a radically soul-shredded revision of "Scarborough Fair," "Eat the Dirt" forsakes piano for funereal pipe organ and "The Last Piece of Cake" pleads Please don't leave me here in the dirt. Fury avoids the sounds of self-pity and melodrama by being downright spooky...

— Michael Toland

Pop Culture Press

Audiogalaxy:

...her arrangements and production are original, her delivery passionate, and her songwriting chillingly unique. Creepy and impressive.

audiogalaxy

Dark Culture Magazine:

Hannah Fury's vocals are soothing and calm. The material is scarred with two rivaling emotions, that of hope and despair. In the end Hannah will convince you that the melancholy of dead winter will triumph.

Dark Culture Magazine

Indiecent:

...The noticeable vocal harmonies Fury surrounds herself with creates an ethereal landscape. Haunting...

— Myra Lee

Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music:   

A very impressive debut EP. Only five songs, but they definitely show Hannah Fury's promise ... "The Last Piece of Cake" shows Fury at her best – beautiful piano, haunting lyrics, and angelic multi-layered vocals.    — J. Hanson

This is a wonderful EP, a very promising start ... "The Necklace of Marie Antoinette" is one of the scariest songs I've heard in a way...    — Rosana

...Strong songwriting and vocals. Highly recommended.     — Neile

...Quiet intensity... What she does with 'Scarborough Fair' is mind-boggling.     — Neal

Ectophiles' Guide



General Comments

IUMA:

...Her deep, lovely, and tenebrous songs pour straight from a disturbed soul.

— Joshua

IUMA

Ectophile's Guide:

Hannah Fury's music is like a liquid form of the darkest rose, one starting to mottle and smell a little too sweet. She has a waver in her voice like a ghost flickering in and out of vision or a slightly mad elderly aunt tipsy on absinthe, and the piano is gorgeous...

— Karen Hester

Ectophiles' Guide

Transmarginal:

... ethereal and darkly enchanting music that hangs in the air after the CD stops playing like opium smoke...

— Mo Sandel