Album Review: Marika Hackman, Big Sigh

Almost nine years on from Marika Hackman’s excellent electro-folk debut, We Slept At Last, this singular artist continues to trudge through perilous territory, mapping different aspects of the human condition, yet soundtracking it with a sublime groove. Take ‘No Caffeine’, on which Hackman lists a wad of aphoristic self-help couplets. They eventually crash into a contradictory mass pile-up, but the jazzy hi-hats and orchestral synths make you want to leap out of your seat.

Soaring grunge has been part of Hackman’s arsenal since her sophomore effort I’m Not Your Man, on which London quartet the Big Moon backed her. ‘Big Sigh’ repeats the formula, and quite astonishingly, the brass and strings are the only instruments Hackman doesn’t play on the album. It’s a song that marvellously blends the strutting bravado of 2019’s Any Human Friend and her earlier experimentation.

It’s no easy road, with the claustrophobic suffocation of ‘The Ground’, the ethereal desperation of ‘Blood’, and the brutal ‘Vitamins’ making it something of a Calvary stomp. Meanwhile, ‘Hanging’ – birthed in the toilet of Hackman’s local pub – is an oppressive, mechanical pressing plant of a track, which morphs into a rock anthem.

In this way, it perfectly captures the loud/quiet, introspective/exuberant, industrial/Arcadian juxtapositions of Big Sigh.

7/10