The Daily Spin, December 6
Maggie Rogers | Heard It In A Past Life
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: Heard It In A Past Life (2019)
Artist: Maggie Rogers
Link:
In an ideal world, I’d begin my review as follows: Somewhere between Phoebe Bridgers and Halsey, Maggie Rogers exists in a world unto herself, creating female-driven indie pop that nails a lot of really wonderful notes throughout.
This isn’t, unfortunately, and Heard It In A Past Life isn’t that solo project that I, personally, was really hoping to see. With Past Life, you get the Maggie Rogers that stunned Pharrell Williams into speechlessness with a class project (that would later become the fantastic track that is ‘Alaska’), but she’s so encumbered by the laden production of others that it dims her shine.
The flashes you get are utterly fantastic through the layering, and admittedly there are moments where the production is a definite benefit - people like Rostam show up and add a deft touch that is just noticeable enough without overdoing it, but oftentimes this just winds up feeling more burdensome than baring, and for a vocalist so heavy on the emotional pull, that’s somewhat of a death knell.
It’s a testament to her talent that through these issues, the album is still that goddamn good. Fair play to her.
Rating: 8.2/10
Best Tracks: Burning; Alaska; Fallingwater
Worst Tracks: The Knife