Marika Hackman has announced her new album Covers, a darkly beautiful, self-produced record which showcases a more vulnerable side. It's out on 13th November via Transgressive in World-ex America and on Sub Pop in North and South America - you can preorder the record here.
Accompanying the news, Marika has shared her version of Grimes’ single Realiti - watch the visualiser below, and stream here. Marika will also be performing a livestream to celebrate the album's release on November 13th. You can purchase tickets as part of the preorder bundles.
During the extended lockdown period of the last few months, Marika felt that creating a covers record was a way of exploring new sound ideas and expressing herself without having the pressure of the blank page. She recorded and produced Covers between home and her parents’ house entirely as a solo project. It was mixed by David Wrench.
In contrast to her last two albums (2019’s Any Human Friend & 2017’s I’m Not Your Man), this collection of songs is more akin in tone and feel to her debut We Slept At Last, with a darker and more introspective sound. On Covers, we hear Marika’s emotive voice set against sparse arrangements of guitars and strings with the occasional synth or scattered drum groove.
Breathing new life into the songs she’s chosen, Marika reimagines work by some of the world's most beloved artists, such as Radiohead, Grimes and Elliott Smith. It’s a suitably varied collection, but Marika’s intimate delivery and soft, nuanced and atmospheric touch to production, thread them all together effortlessly.
Marika explains how she came to choose the material: "When it comes to covers, I like to pick songs which I have been listening to obsessively for a while. It gives me a natural understanding of the music, and lets me be more innovative with how I transform it."
