Maggie Rogers - Heard It in a Past Life

Maggie Rogers
Heard It in a Past Life
2019
Spotify

It's hard to believe it's been two years since Maggie Rogers brought Pharrell to tears with a demo of her song "Alaska" for a song writing and producing class. The video has over a million views and put the world on notice that Maggie Rogers was coming for them. A 2017 EP featured the breakout hit and served as a nice little placeholder for the full album. Many of those songs have made their way onto Heard it in a Past Life, but the sound still feels modern and fresh. Her music is filled with this super rich sound where instead of feeling massive or expansive it feels small but makes a major impact. "Light On" a song about breaking up but maintaining hope that perhaps some day everything will work out. This album is so lovely and sweet while still dealing with some serious emotional baggage. She is dealing with a life lived full of love and loss, the same shit we all deal with everyday. Maggie manages to make those trials and tribulations sound delicate and meaningful, her clean vocal adds to this sense. She isn't trying to blow you away with her range, she isn't trying to beat you over the head with powerful sounds, she wants you to feel and feel it all the way. The fact that everything is not so cookie cutter clean and polished gives it a real place at the pop music table. She is able to create these lovely engaging environments every time she opens her mouth.

This album for one thing shows that there is still a way to do electropop in 2018. For a long time now electropop has either been to cozy with the 80s or to aware of what trap music is doing. You see this with acts like Ariana Grande and Beyonce weaving trap into their songs or other more under the radar artists relying to heavily on the 80s tone. This has none of that, and it doesn't need it. The music is meant to be big while still being approachable and having a message worth connecting too. You do however get a sense that a lot of these songs sound the same and hit the same messages. She clearly feels a deep love, and that love has been broken or battered, but the themes sort of end there. She misss out on so many slices of life, and sounds for that matter, that could really serve her well. She is still just a young artist and, unfortunately it shows in the things she writes around. You can imagine where this beautiful voice and keen mind will go once she matures in her writing ability. There is nothing but upside to this album and to Maggie Rogers, where she takes it is totally up to her,

7.9 out of 10