Chicago-based Synth/Pop group Course has announced that their new album Hue Mirror will arrive on April 25th, 2025. Their third full-length offering, Hue Mirror, was written by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Robbins in the wake of a traumatic, life-altering diagnosis. They have shared the title track “Hue Mirror,” a song that “captures a moment of whirlwind confusion, fear, and shock.”
Course has previously released 2021’s A Late Hour and 2023’s Tight Feathers. In recent years, however, Robbins found it increasingly difficult to ignore pain in her spine turning her everyday activities, like walking, sleeping, holding her guitar, even breathing, into a struggle.
Hue Mirror began taking shape last year during several months of intense uncertainty, before Robbins received the medical news that would change her life forever: a diagnosis for an aggressive autoimmune disorder called Ankylosing Spondylitis. “An incurable disease that targets the spine and joints causing long term damage, severe chronic pain and discomfort”, the news left Robbins in shock.
She continued writing songs with “renewed conviction and resilience, confronting her illness.”
She shares:
‘Hue Mirror’ is the first song I wrote after my AS diagnosis on April 11, 2024. My head was spinning. I was in a haze when I wrote this. I wasn’t given much explanation about the disease, just that they were ordering a strong drug to suppress my immune system and lower the inflammation. I felt confused and scared, not understanding what was happening. I wrote this song during that time of uncertainty about my future. The song touches on the idea of how medicine for this disease comes at a cost, the pain I had been enduring for so long, and the unpredictability of not knowing when the next flare will hit. No matter how much you work out, take medicine, or eat healthy, this disease is here forever. It will never go away. I want to raise awareness for this disease, which affects so many but remains relatively unknown to the general population. It took me a decade to get a diagnosis, and nobody should have to go through that.
Course has also partnered with the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) for a special preview of Hue Mirror to help raise awareness and funds towards efforts for developing a cure. Anyone who donates $10 or more will receive a code to download the album ahead of its release.
SAA states:
We are so grateful to Jess for sharing her talents to tell the story of her AS journey through music and lyrics on her current album Hue Mirror. If you would like to support Jess and help SAA with its mission, please consider a donation to this meaningful project and explore this special album with your own personal digital copy! Included with the eight songs in the download are lyrics and song summaries.
