Ann Wilson continues her recent streak of singles with the heavy new song “The Hammer.”
“When the hammer comes down, grinding, grinding / When the hammer comes down, reminding, reminding,” she belts on the track over a slippery, lightly psychedelic guitar riff that conjures mid-’90s Soundgarden. “When the hammer comes down, blinding, blinding / When the hammer comes down, unwinding, unwinding.”
The song, which the Heart singer cowrote with Craig Bartock and Tyler Boley, is available to hear below.
“‘The Hammer’ talks about that moment when the rubber meets the road, when all dreams, fantasies and excuses fall by the wayside,” Wilson tweeted. “The moment of truth. The edge of reality.”
The track follows a pair of recently issued Wilson cuts, the January-issued “Tender Heart” and an October cover of Steve Earle‘s 2004 song “The Revolution Starts Now.” She called the latter cut ”a powerful, uplifting anthem of unity,” adding, “It’s an incitement to think higher than polarization and derision. We need that now. I used to love this song in a ‘fun’ way. Nowadays, I take it much more seriously and urgently.”
Wilson’s most recent solo LP, 2018’s Immortal, featured covers of late artists like Tom Petty, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and George Michael.
In November, Wilson announced that Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney) is writing and directing a Heart biopic for Amazon. The script is expected to span the story of Ann and sister Nancy from childhood through the ’90s.