Marika Hackman – ‘Big Sigh’ review: a defining moment

On her last album ‘Any Human Friend’, Marika Hackman became known as indie-pop’s most forthright troubadour. Whether it was lines about oral sex, masturbation, or imagining the worst things your ex might be thinking about you, she tossed these colourful and often raunchy details out winkingly and unflinchingly. It was a breakup album, lyrically infused with plenty of self-loathing and confusion, but it tended to stay pretty light — the dark feelings flicked away, eyes set on the rebound. On her new album, ‘Big Sigh’, Hackman retains that same lack of squeamishness while the party deflates; now, it’s the gore of heartbreak and doomed romance that she’s exploring.

Often across the album she’s addressing a lover via visceral metaphors. “My heart won’t grow with your fingers down my throat,” she tells them on ‘Hanging’; “You want to suck my blood,” on ‘Blood’; “You called me dolly and cut my hair / You plucked my wings off and I went slack,” on ‘The Yellow Mile’. Much of this is delivered as accusation, as if the cheeky gaze that defined previous work has become a withering stare. The bodily imagery paints lucid pictures of emotional violence and masochism, while interestingly, also speaking to a very personal fixation of Hackman’s — she says she first experienced anxiety after contracting sepsis aged 17.

This is Hackman’s darkest, heaviest album on a sonic level too. She played every instrument herself apart from brass and strings, and co-produced along with Sam Petts-Davies (Thom Yorke, Warpaint) and Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Wolf Alice). In contrast to the more collaborative full-band energy that has marked her previous albums, the solo approach allows for a sense of space and solitude. Title track ‘Big Sigh’ harnesses its downcast, ruminative energy into a big, stirring chorus, while ‘Hanging’ begins as a piano ballad before its climax section marked by transcendent vocal harmonies crashes into life.

Meanwhile, the range of more muted songs offers further emotional nuances. ‘Blood’ is a darkly atmospheric acoustic track that calls to mind Soccer Mommy; ‘Vitamins’ uses glitchy electronics to create a rich melancholy; and closer ‘The Yellow Mile’ is a Sufjan-esque cut of wistful folk. ‘No Caffeine’ and ‘Slime’ provide the album’s peppier moments, feeling closest to the vibe of ‘Any Human Friend’.

The result is an excellent follow-up to the breakthrough that was ‘Any Human Friend’. Hackman raises the stakes in her music in a way that feels natural; it is conceptually bigger and more creatively mature, while the songcraft makes this transition feel earned. If ‘Any Human Friend’ was the rebound, ‘Big Sigh’ feels like the crash after the feelings you’ve been ignoring catch up to you — and it’s a defining moment for one of the UK’s most intriguing songwriters.