Exploring her past and observing her present, American Maggie Rogers creates an album in the form of a road trip, a kind of gentle musical epic through her introspection, which exhilarates and sometimes rocks us.
Maggie Rogers gets confused, questions herself when she sees her friends getting married or in unhappy relationships, she clings to her old relationships. Like everyone, she experiences many ups and downs, learning about herself and navigating life and love as best she can. It’s all this that she talks about, like a diary, on her new album. His way of telling stories is engaging, delicate, intelligent and poetic.
By wanting to create a set of songs that sound like a “Sunday afternoon”, she gave her melodies this cadence that actually makes us want to listen to it in the car, on a sunny Sunday, with the windows down. Inspired by the music of her idols (from Patti Smith to Joni Mitchell) and their era too, she has forged a record of her time which borrows the key vintage which she appreciates.
This album, which she co-produced with Ian Fitchuck (Shania Twain, James Bay, Kacey Musgraves), demonstrates a new approach, where pop-rock reveals what the artist knows how to do when she gets rid of her synthesizers (nicely present on his first disc, Heard It in a Past Life) and allows for more organic exploration.
Drunk, with its electric guitar, its agitated bass, its fiery chorus, takes us elsewhere in the universe of Maggie Rogers, somewhere where rock is more present. But something in the way he sings, in the tone of his voice, inevitably brings us back to the essence of his music: always catchy and full of sensitivity (in the words, in the voice), marked by melodies crafted from a nimble hand.
If Now Was Then is a perfect demonstration of Maggie Rogers’ talent for rhythms that energize, make you want to move. The one that follows, I Still Do, piano-voice (and what a voice!), is a ballad that skins and moves, addressing a love that she cannot let go. The superb On & On & On will allow Rogers admirers to sing at the top of their lungs during his concerts.
All The Same, stripped down, takes us back to the basics of what a great acoustic song (piano and guitar) can do. Here again, Rogers remembers and expresses his nostalgia, reaching out towards the moments that are fleeing.
The album ends with the title track, the magnificent Don’t Forget Me, which concludes the journey with strength, as she realizes that the things she thought she envied are ultimately not for her and that she is instead destined for another road. Regardless, the path she is taking, musically at least, is the right one.
Extract of Don’t Forget Me
Indie Pop
Don’t Forget Me
Maggie Rogers
Capitol Records