Spectreview: Marika Hackman – Any Human Friend

-LIGHT SLATE BLUE-

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“I gave it all, but under patriarchal law
I’m gonna die a virgin”

On Any Human Friend, Marika Hackman makes the decision to turn the dial up on accessibility, though considering how 2017’s I’m Not Your Man already fleshed her singer-songwriter compositions out to a full rocking band, it’s not as huge a change in style as marketed. But the line between pop-leaning indie rock and rock-leaning indie pop is defined enough, and when the chorus hits on fantastic lead single “the one” it’s not only a firm marker of this stylistic switch-up but also a higher level of confidence than we’ve ever seen from the English artist. Speaking of confidence, Hackman’s gotten so good at shattering the patriarchy that men aren’t even a player in the album’s implicit narrative, where Hackman tackles the nuances of female sexuality from the inside out. Whether or not it was intended, choosing to work in the confines of pop makes a lot of sense here: even though we’ve seen many artists redefine pop in terms of sound and subject over the last few years, there’s still this overall focus on traditional gender roles that’s obviously hard to shake, and Hackman inadvertently challenges that sensibility across the album.

Subverting expectations is the name of the game here, exemplified in the table-turning opener “wanderlust,” which transitions suddenly from contemplative lo-fi guitar to “the one’s” hi-fi pop pulses. Explicit sexual lyricism is arguably hard to pull off without sounding cheesy, regardless of gender, but Hackman’s mellifluous voice embodies the material here, rounding vowels and spreading syllables in ways that pull the words off the page and into real life. Under her custody, a song about schlicking (“hand solo”) becomes one of the catchiest, most satisfying songs in an album full of them, as she juxtaposes the self-evident positives of masturbation against its arcane purported consequences (hairy palms, going blind), with a touch of anatomical realism to freak out the internally conservative. Its’ not all confrontation though, far from it; the dominant spirit here is empathy, as Hackman imagines herself in the eyes of her ex-girlfriend post-breakup (“send my love”) and levels with a girl who’s using her as a first-time experience (“conventional ride”). It’s driven home in the closing title track, where Hackman switches from specificity to universality as she implores us to be aware of conformity and accept our quirks. Any Human Friend is a treasure trove of simple pleasures, hitting a crossroads between Blondie and St. Vincent that says a lot in between its sonics.

Recommended for solo (or duo) dance parties.