Hannah Diamond
Reflections
Release Date: Nov 22, 2019
Genre(s): Pop, Pop/Rock, Left-Field Pop
Record label: N/A
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Album Review: Reflections by Hannah Diamond
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Teased for what seems like a very long time, pop artist Hannah Diamond's debut full-length on London, England's PC Music has finally arrived. Accompanied by bleeding-edge, meticulously programmed production from label-head A.G. Cook (with collaboration from easyFun), Diamond's take on pop music is as arresting as it was when she first made waves on the label earlier in the decade. This means that, if you haven't yet acquired a taste for the project's saccharine tones and pitch-bent vocal acrobatics, you can safely sit this one out, but if you ….
Opinion: Excellent
Hannah Diamond started releasing tracks a long six years ago, and finally her debut album is here. While the first track, 'Reflections', is a bit of a flat start, it's by no means representative of the rest of the project, which picks up immediately with 'Invisible', a glimmering, hyperreality track with a stunning hook that reminds us what this futuristic artist is really capable of. In this Charli-XCX-meets-Sarah-Bonito album, Diamond explores collapsed relationships, but within that themes of self-reflection, particularly remembering who she was in those relationships and the parts of herself that were lost.
Opinion: Excellent
T he press release for Hannah Diamond's debut album hammers home the fact that the 28-year-old from Norwich is a real person. As the early figurehead for gonzo collective PC Music's synthetic, hyper-real take on pop music, Diamond was caught in a wider conversation surrounding notions of authenticity, with her early singles dismissed as two-dimensional or, worse, the work of male geniuses using her as an avatar. Reflections, a gloriously overwrought breakup album, proves there's a beating heart beneath Diamond's self-aware, Photoshopped exterior.
Opinion: Excellent
H ere's an affecting companion piece to Caroline Polachek's recently acclaimed Pang: another breakup album with production handled by one of the PC Music collective, who rescue trance-pop sonics from the tyranny of good taste. Polachek's record featured work by Danny L Harle, while Diamond's is produced by AG Cook. Where Polachek is erudite and poetic, Diamond is prosaic; where Polachek's vocals are astonishingly skilful, swooping into high registers, Diamond's are unremarkably ordinary.
'Reflections'
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