Hatchie
Keepsake
Release Date: Jun 21, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Double Double Whammy
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Album Review: Keepsake by Hatchie
Excellent, Based on 9 Critics
Based on rating 8.5/10
Off the back of some really strong early singles and EPs, it's fair to say that Hatchie's debut album Keepsake was always going to be one to look out for this year. Combining '80s pop sensibilities, shoegaze atmospheres, and monochrome vocals, the ingredients from which Harriette Pilbeam creates her musical aesthetic is one that is both instantly appealing and, remarkably for an artist so early on in her career, instantly recognizable. She's made a signature sound already.
Based on rating 8.5/10
Reflections of our younger selves grappling with life, winning and losing tiny daily battles. Everyone's past is unique unto themselves but invariably each contains within it some degree of happiness and heartbreak, hard lessons and bad decisions, and often a confidence we forgot we once had. This tunnel to past times is often accompanied by songs, though seldom those of our choosing; nights lost in bars or on dance floors drowning in the current tastes of the time.
Based on rating 4/5
As Hatchie, Brisbane native Harriette Pilbeam provides the soundtrack to falling in love. She floods your ears with dreamy melodies, sugary tones and lush vocals, nestled in a perfect middle between Cocteau Twins and Alvvays - though commanding an artistry entirely her own. Having already released a slew of strong singles, the debut LP from the Australian musician veers away from the sometimes-sickly sweet sound of her older work.
Based on rating 8/10
On her debut full-length, Keepsake, Harriette Pilbeam, also known as Hatchie, delivers a soundtrack of sighing heartbreak, longing nostalgia, and struggling friendships with her honeyed aesthetic, following instant acclaim for her five-song dream-pop EP Sugar & Spice, released just last year. Lead single "Without a Blush," blends Pilbeam's seamless, breezy voice with chiming synths, blotted with ripped-up guitar and subtle undertones, revealing Hatchie's more aggressive nature on the new album. Keepsake expands on Sugar & Spice's ….
Based on rating 8/10
On her debut EP, Sugar & Spice, Hatchie's ultra-catchy take on dream pop was so perfectly realized that it was hard to tell how she could improve -- or expand -- on it. Though her approach isn't as novel as it was before, Harriette Pillbeam's music sounds better than ever on Keepsake. She spends the first half of her debut album showing just how much she can change things up while keeping the honeyed melodies and soaring choruses that are vital to the Hatchie sound.
Based on rating 7.5/10
Hatchie is not here to be pinned down. While the Australian singer-songwriter's breakthrough EP Sugar & Spice caught hype and affection just last year, it also cast her into a seemingly set role. Right on down to its gleaming cover art, it was a PR fantasy, as easily sold as it was bought by listeners. This proper debut LP Keepsake, then, feels something like a defensive measure.
Based on rating 6.5/10
Shoegaze offers the perfect place to bury bad feelings; there is a storied legacy of groups like Slowdive and Mazzy Star sinking Tory conservatism and post-breakup remorse into hazy swirls of distortion. Harriette Pilbeam uses Hatchie as an outlet for more quotidian concerns -- friendships, romances, nostalgia. On her EP Sugar & Spice, Pilbeam offered glassy guitars, long sighs, and some bright choruses, but there was nothing darker beneath the surface to reward your close, ongoing attention.
Opinion: Excellent
Right from the start Hatchie seemed to have something other songwriters lacked. Real name Harriette Pilbeam, the Brisbane talent's debut EP 'Sugar & Spice' was a deft fusion of shoegaze and indie pop, delivered with this coy sense of post-adolescent introversion. 'Keepsake' retains this sound but builds on it; bold, bigger, musically more confident while lyrically looking ever more inward, it's the sound of the songwriter truly coming into her own.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Rating: NNN Dream pop is arguably the best genre for summer. It brings to mind shimmering outdoor pools, sun-dappled bike rides in slow-motion-fluttering floral dresses, thick humidity. It's fitting, then, that Hatchie - the moniker of Australian singer/songwriter Harriette Pilbeam - released her debut full-length on this year's summer solstice. Keepsake bottles up all those images into a collection of woozy pop songs.
'Keepsake'
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