From the opening acoustic strums of "Blue", you get a sense that Indigo Sparke's Hysteria is going to be a different type of musical experience. It's subtle, with layers and complexities both in melody in message that had this reviewer picking through a myriad of emotional experiences throughout each track. There's love, loss, grief, and more all packed into 14 tracks.
One way to describe it would be that Hysteria is a very textual album, you can feel the ripples and embody them as you listen one song after the next. Everything is layered here, vocal layers, musical layers, and layered thoughts/phrases/meanings. The album is produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. On her experience of working with Dessner, Sparke said "Aaron is such an incredible person, to feel his generosity and to feel him in my corner is a true gift. It definitely took a moment for me to get used to a different way of working and hand my trust and heart over to him and his vision but it also felt so natural and we became close friends in the process" via press release.
The album is riddled with tracks that jump off the record at you, and you just feel in your bones that these are going to be the memories you take away from this album. For me, it was "Pressure in My Chest" and "God is A Woman's Name". Something just hits different about how well put together this album is for a singer/songwriter making her sophomore attempt. That is just it though, Sparke isn't your typical budding singer/songwriter. Already, she has attracted the attention of two mega producers, first with Adrianne Lenker on Echo and now with Dessner on Hysteria. It's clear that people are drawn to her music, give it a listen and you surely will be too.
Rating - 4.5/5