The River Only Flows One Way by Luke O’Hanlon – A Track-by-Track Review
- Editorial Board
- May 9
- 3 min read
An unflinching journey through grief, identity, memory, and survival.... one track at a time.
Luke O’Hanlon’s The River Only Flows One Way feels like a diary left in the rain. It’s not just a collection of songs. It’s a reckoning. Every track is soaked in imagery, heavy with emotion, and pulsing with the ache of someone trying to make sense of time, grief, and memory. Here’s the journey, one track at a time.
1. Alcohol and Sodium: The album opens with a ghost. Not just metaphorically. There’s one kicking the kick drum. The track orbits around addiction, disconnection, and the slow corrosion of identity. The refrain, "alcohol and sodium," becomes a ritual chant. This is mourning dressed as melody. Grief in fluorescent lighting.
2. Stevie: A prayer whispered through headphones. This is one of the quietest and most powerful moments on the album. It captures the pain of watching someone disappear into their own mind. “I wanted you to be whole again” is a heartbreak wrapped in a wish. The closing lines suggest legacy, haunting, and love all woven together.
3. Einstein’s Twin: Time travel, family, and fractured identity collapse into each other here. The metaphor of a twin becomes a way to explore distance. The face of someone you once knew now feels light years away. The lyrics are dense but never cold. It’s a song that confronts change and leaves space for sorrow.
4. The River Only Flows One Way : This is the centerpiece. A spoken confession and a mythic tale. O’Hanlon builds a world where rivers never turn back, and everything left behind echoes forever. The story flows from childhood to heartbreak, from isolation to courage. The imagery is relentless. “Inside the whale there is a pretty good bookshelf” is just one of many moments that stick.
5. Mannequin: A song for the misfits, the gender-nonconforming, and anyone who’s felt forced into a costume. It balances poetic clarity with quiet rage. The mannequin metaphor is brilliantly executed. “Was someone else’s skin wrapped round you” is one of the most powerful lines on the record.
6. Henrietta: The name repeats like a wound that won’t close. It’s about love, regret, obsession, and memory. The structure is hypnotic, and the verses feel like they’re being sung in a room no one else is allowed to enter. Deeply personal and almost voyeuristic in its intensity.
7. Parrots of Lark Lane: A psychedelic documentary disguised as a folk song. Vivid and surreal. The parrots are real, but they also symbolize freedom, madness, maybe even hope. The track walks the streets of Liverpool like a poet with a hangover. Every line carries both beauty and decay. An under-the-skin standout.
8. Cold Black Stone: Short and sharp. A protest hymn rooted in biblical imagery. This one seethes quietly. It’s a callout, a rejection of complicity, and a reminder of how faith and failure often walk hand in hand. The stone in the heart never melts.
9. Our Salad Days: A punk-folk confessional. The narrator is older, bitter, and looking back with both scorn and tenderness. The lyrics capture a time when everything felt possible and nothing lasted. “Let the head tell the heart and the heart the head you’re a moron” is brutally honest and unforgettable.
10. Middle Fingers Held High: The album closes with defiance. A love song, a goodbye, and a battle cry all at once. The repeated image of middle fingers raised becomes iconic. It’s not just about anger. It’s about dignity. About choosing not to disappear quietly. About standing tall, even when everything falls around you.
Luke O’Hanlon has crafted something rare. This album doesn’t try to solve pain. It gives it shape. The River Only Flows One Way is a poetic, relentless, beautifully broken body of work. One that refuses to look away.
Big thanks to Luke O'Hanlon for being here and sharing his insights with us. Make sure to follow him on Instagram and listen to The River Only Flows One Way, available on all streaming on all platforms
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