If '
Giving The World Away' was
Hatchie's big pop pivot – all gloss, grandeur, and studio muscle – then '
Liquorice' is her soft reboot. Gone are the Dan Nigro co-writes and LA sheen. In their place? A backyard, a digital camera, and songs that sound like they were dreamt up while staring at the ceiling.
This is Hatchie at her most relaxed, and arguably, her most Hatchie. Written with longtime collaborator Joe Agius and produced by Jay Som's Melina Duterte, it's a record that feels like a deep exhale, the kind you only manage after burning out and moving back in with your parents. Which is, incidentally, exactly what she did.
Sonically, it's a return to her shoegazey roots – less 'synth-pop girly', more Cocteau Twins in a sunhat. '
Only One Laughing' and '
Someone Else's News' could've slipped out of the '
Keepsake' era, but there's a grown-up glow to it all now. Even when she's singing in her "Gallagher voice" on '
Lose It Again', there's a self-awareness that stops it ever tipping into pastiche.
