Now over a decade into her career,
Marika Hackman
can be relied on to surprise from album to album, having moved from intimate nu-folk to grungier indie rock to something poppier with keyboards and drum machines in play on 2019's
Any Human Friend
. Unfortunately for
Hackman
and most everyone else, the COVID-19 pandemic took hold just a few months after the release of that album, closing venues and making collaboration more challenging. For
, this first-time break from continuous album cycles was accompanied by a bout of writer's block, so she set about recording an intimate covers album (
Covers
), which appeared on
Sub Pop
in late 2020. Despite serious concerns to the contrary, the songwriting gates opened for her the following year, and the resulting
Big Sigh
marks her
Chrysalis Records
debut. It also reflects yet another shift in sound, with its quietly intense indie rock accentuated by horns and strings.
played virtually everything else herself on the album, which she co-produced with longtime collaborator
Charlie Andrew
(
Alt-J
,
Wolf Alice
) and
Sam Petts-Davies
Thom Yorke
Warpaint
). Far from a celebratory record, however,
finds her diving deep into her innermost thoughts and resentments in the aftermath of a toxic relationship. Family is not off limits on "Vitamins," a lethargic, half-murmured lament with humming synths and clanking metal about unhelpful advice, a critical mother, and unwanted encouragement ("I'm not special and you're all insane"). Most of the songs, though, explore the relationship and its various emotional scars, as illustrated by sometimes graphically poetic descriptions and metaphor, including references to blood, bones, afterbirth, plucked wings, and a heart that's "a hard brown stone, like an embryo." Elsewhere, "Slime" is a dark, driving indie rocker about sex, while the overthinking "No Caffeine" enumerates all the things to try to do and not do to foster healing ("Make a herbal tea/Don't throw up"). Depressed, self-loathing, bitter, and candid throughout,
closes on an unexpected spare acoustic track, the resigned "The Yellow Mile," which restates the warped sentiment of opening prelude "The Ground": "I was happy for a while." Terrible circumstances aside, maybe
just needed a little break before delivering her most compelling album to date. ~ Marcy Donelson