Marika Hackman - Any Human Friend

What follows are 10 tracks in which Marika shows off a new-found self-confidence after getting over heartbreak. The record reflects the strength she’s found in life with tight grungy guitar riffs and soaring synths, the latter showing the singer’s ever-stretching musical limbs. It’s sharp and biting, with the singer’s characteristic dark wit weaving once again throughout the record.

Where she previously cloaked her saucier subjects in metaphor (candid ‘I’m Not Your Man’ highlight ‘Violet’, for example), her new material instead revels in laying it all bare. She talks openly and honestly about fucking, leaving nothing to the imagination in tracks like ‘hand solo’ and ‘all night’ which respectively talk about female pleasure and a big night-time romp with your other half: it’s Marika’s rawness that makes ‘Any Human Friend’ such an emotive and compelling album.

As the album closes on its title track, there’s a sense of hopefulness, of coming out of a rough period into a future brighter than before. This is a new Marika emerging from the clutches of a difficult breakup into a more established sense of self. Not so much Marika 3.0 as the Marika who was always there, but tougher, stronger and more triumphant than ever.

Tags: Marika Hackman, Reviews, Album Reviews