DIFFICULT second album? What difficult second album? London singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Marika Hackman has got her snags out of the way after her 2015 debut, We Slept At Last, left her in danger of being lumped into the just-another-whimsical-folkie category.
I’m Not Your Man kicks any such pigeonholing firmly into touch. This is an album with claws, channelling the best bits of Britpop and her obvious love of PJ Harvey and grunge and weaving them into a piece of work that’s sharp, observant, brooding, swaggering, laden with hooks and, at times, enchanting.
Hackman shows herself to be capable of moving from up-tempo "attitude" tracks such as Boyfriend and Time’s Been Reckless, through the slinky Gina’s World and So Long, to the smooth economy of Apple Tree, which is virtually a medieval ballad in modern clothes. Hackman still hasn’t quite got the depth for a 13-song album but her development is rapid and striking. She’s just gone from being a possible to being a probable.
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