There’s a frisson of excitement in Backseat Mafia’s antipodean offices. It’s been two years since Brisbane’s dream pop queen Hatchie graced us with her presence with her album ‘Keepsake’ (see my review here), and while she has raised her head above the parapets with a few collaborations (including her duo on the stunning Rinse single ‘Wherever I Am’ with her partner Joe Agius), there has been little obvious movement at the Hatchie station.
But the drought has broken: always a singular event downunder. On news that Hatchie has signed a deal with US label Secretly Canadian, she has released the shimmering single ‘This Enchanted’. It is classic Hatchie: dreamy, cloudy billowing dream pop that’s mesmerising, anthemic and melodic.
Harriette Pilbeam, the heart and soul of Hatchie, says of the track:
‘This Enchanted’ encapsulates everything I wanted to do moving forward from my first album. I started writing it with Jorge and Joe in February 2020 and completed it from afar in lockdown later in the year. We had been talking about making something dancey but shoegaze.
“It’s one of the more light-hearted, lyrically vague songs of my new recordings, about falling in love. It’s not a perfect relationship, but you’re enthralled by one another and it’s an easy love. It’s one of the most fun songs I’ve written, so it was a no-brainer to pick it as my first solo release in almost two years. It feels so right to be working with a label as exciting as Secretly as I step into new territory with Hatchie. I’ve been counting down the days until its release for a long time.
There is a visible deep purple hue to the reverie: lush, vibrant colours painted on the sonic canvas with a muscular bass and trademark jangle.
The accompanying video mixes a psychedelic performance piece with the band and Pilbeam’s charming whimsical wanderings in the Michael Mann lit night lights.
With Hatchie back on the scene, surely things are looking up. ‘This Enchanted’ is out now through Secretly Canadian and Ivy League Records and available to download/stream from all the usual sources and through the link below:
Feature photograph: Nick Maguire
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