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Most people have a moment in their life when the world feels too divided to recognize. Paul Hennessy had that moment too, but instead of shouting into the void or arguing online, he sat down with a notebook, a guitar, and an idea that felt outrageous even to him: releasing 12 albums – 144 original songs in a single day under the now-titled project The Cost Of The Escape. On December 12, 2025, Hennessy attempted to set a Guinness World Record for the most albums released by one musical act within 24 hours, dropping twelve full albums simultaneously.
Paul Hennessy believed that if a single song could cut through the noise of modern life and make a stranger feel understood, then multiplying that force by 144 might stir something bigger. Maybe not a revolution, but a reminder that connection still exists, even when it feels like everything else in the world is on fire.
Hennessy has been writing songs for over forty years, and he writes the way other people breathe, constantly, instinctively, without effort. He carries notebooks everywhere, scribbling down overheard conversation, the shape of a memory, or a phrase that lands with unexpected weight. The early hours of the morning tend to be his sanctuary, that half-dreaming state when the world is quiet, and creativity usually strikes. One morning, curiosity piqued, has anyone ever tried releasing as many songs in a single day as possible? That question sent him down a rabbit hole that led to Guinness World Records, the very same book he pored over as a kid, marveling at the strange and dedicated people who pushed against the boundaries of possibility.
The feat took six months, far shorter than the three years he originally expected. A song a day, every day, without cutting corners, no filler tracks, no phone-ins. Every song had to stand on its own, not leaning on the novelty of the number.
What made it possible was a partnership he never expected to embrace: artificial intelligence. Not the lyrics, they come only from lived experiences, but the musical production. Hennessy treated AI like an infinite roster of the world’s best session producers, horns on demand, piano outros shaped in seconds, guitar leads reimagined without waiting for studio time.
Beneath the technical fascination and Guinness-sized ambition lay something deeper. The twelve albums are each a reflection of universal struggles, endurance, grief, temptation, courage, and reinvention. Inspired structurally by the 12 Labors of Hercules but emotionally rooted in the present, these songs explore the labors of love and loss, fear and bravery, grief and healing, and the challenges of simply being human. Each album is its own emotional world, and the 144 tracks are meant to be companions, something to hold onto during long nights, restless mornings, or quiet moments of self-reflection.
Hennessy doesn’t expect listeners to sit and listen to all 144 tracks of The Cost Of The Escape. He hopes they’ll pick one, let it mean something, and perhaps that single song opens the door to the next. Music is one of the last remaining forces on earth that can make strangers feel like kin. If even one of his songs manages to do that, the record has already made a meaningful impact.
Check out Paul Hennessy’s The Cost Of The Escape now out on YouTube:
