Keepsake
Despite an earlier stint in Brisbane quartet Go Violets, Harriette Pilbeam seemed to emerge out of nowhere with her 2018 debut EP as Hatchie. The immersive dream-pop of *Sugar & Spice* earned strong notices around the world, and the full-length follow-up *Keepsake* continued Pilbeam’s winning combination of brightly careening melodies and lush textural depth. Even when Pilbeam applies woozy washes of guitar effects, they serve to heighten her sharp pop instincts rather than obscure them. Observe how “Without a Blush” carves out a roomy atmosphere far in advance of its headily romantic chorus, or how “Secret” culminates in a shimmering latticework of overlapping vocals. Several songs hark back to the mid-’90s radio hits of The Cranberries and The Sundays, even as heavier turns point toward My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins. All the while, Pilbeam’s sighing, empathic vocals capture the upending sensation of new love and other seismic emotional events. Pilbeam would tease out even more electronic elements on 2022’s *Giving the World Away*, following through on the sleepy club hook deployed here for “Stay With Me.” She would also enlist top co-writers like Olivia Rodrigo collaborator Dan Nigro to take her songwriting ever more skyward with undeniable earworms like “Quicksand.”
Hatchie's platonic ideal of dream pop goes down a bit too easy, like another rewatch of a John Hughes film.
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At some point, you’ll wonder if it was Hatchie’s heartache and pain that was written about, or your own.
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Lead single "Without a Blush," blends Pilbeam's seamless, breezy voice with chiming synths, blotted with ripped-up guitar and subtle undertones, revealing Hatchie's more aggressive nature on the new album.
Off the back of some really strong early singles and EPs, it's fair to say that Hatchie's debut album Keepsake was always going to be one to look out for this year.
Right from the start Hatchie seemed to have something other songwriters lacked. Real name Harriette Pilbeam, the Brisbane talent’s debut EP
If you're searching for one word to describe the '80s-leaning-into-'90s dream-pop throughline running through varied contemporary music (Taylor Swift,...
From the Cocteau Twins to the Sundays, the Brisbane artist wears her references on her sleeve – and delivers a wistful, irresistible debut
But what Hariette Pilbeam—the Australian songwriter who performs as Hatchie—has done with her album Keepsake is try to have it both ways, both shoegaze and not-shoegaze, with a fair deal of success.