Album Review: Liquorice by Hatchie

On her first two records, Harriette Pilbeam, aka Hatchie, opened with an irresistible hook. But on her latest project, Liquorice, there's a tinge of unease in the pulsing synths and reverb-drenched vocals of meditative opener Anemoia. 'Maybe the world you want has to slip away', muses the Australian singer-songwriter. Produced by Melina Duterte, aka Jay Som, the album took shape after Pilbeam settled into a slower pace of life back in Australia after a period in Los Angeles.

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It's amazing how blanketing, reverb-drenched guitars can tug at the heartstrings and lift your spirits with equal emotion. Australian singer-songwriter Harriette Pilbeam, who performs as Hatchie, has tapped into these two modes throughout her entire career, but Liquorice is her first album where one doesn't overpower the other. By allowing her new songs to germinate for weeks on end, giving them the time needed to grow into gorgeous, ethereal immersiveness, Pilbeam has found the balance between maximalism and spaciousness.

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Hatchie, aka Harriette Pilbeam, has always had a knack for making melancholy sound strangely uplifting. On her latest album Liquorice, she leans fully into the sound that made her name, delivering a record that plays to her considerable strengths. The album opens in understated fashion with "Anemoia," all hazy vocals and wistful lyrics. Things really take off with the sublime "Only One Laughing" and "Carousel," which both sparkle like The Sundays' long-lost cousins, located firmly in "I Kicked a Boy" and "Can't Be Sure" territory.

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On her third album 'Liquorice', Aussie singer-songwriter Hatchie masters her classic dream-pop sound, delivering eleven new mesmerising tracks. She wraps up tales of yearning in lush vocals, otherworldly synths and beautiful harmonies, pulling us deep into her ethereal soundscape and tending to us with each next track to make sure we stay with her for a while. Her shimmering production seamlessly reworks lyrics of helplessness into shimmering anthems of release and renewal, lifting the tone into something brighter in keeping with her catalogue.

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Opting to step away from the dancefloor that pulsed its way through her previous record, 2022's 'Giving The World Away', is one thing, but across Hatchie's third album 'Liquorice', there's not enough of a similarly singular focus to grab hold of among the sounds it warps and wefts - and unfortunately too often, wafts - through. The spacey alt-pop that forms most of the record's first third may pair sonically with the Aussie songwriter's breathy delivery, but the feather-light breeze of 'Only One Laughing' and 'Anemoia' veers far too much into barely-there territory, and even the (relative) hook of 'Carousel' is all but lost among its dreamy '80s soundscape. There's a similar restraint which bookends the record, too, as the potentially heady fuzz of 'Anchor' might aim for the intricate layers of noise rock, but does nothing to prevent its repetitive 'eh eh''s from suggesting filler; the potential grunge of closer 'Stuck', meanwhile, is frustratingly opaque, as if it's all been turned down to 5.

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