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  • Andy Wors

Highasakite šŸ‡³šŸ‡“ - ā€˜Mother’ (Album)


I’m approaching the new Highasakite album somewhat nervously because my rule this year is to keep reviews really brief, yet ā€˜Mother’ is such huge ambitious project I’m not entirely sure how I can give a balanced perspective in a few short paragraphs. I guess it barely matters, they’re so big that my view is largely irrelevant.


Somewhat frighteningly this is their 5th album, having debuted in 2012 with ā€˜All That Floats Will Rain’, most recently releasing ā€˜Uranium Heart’ (which I liked) in 2019, and now the latest is ā€˜Mother’. And without going into the history, they’re now very much a duo, based around founding members Ingrid HĆ„vik and Trond Bersu.

To say that ā€˜Mother’ is a weighty release is somewhat of an understatement, with synths turned up to 11, and always carried along by HĆ„vikā€˜s dark electro pop vocals and lyrics, which I’ll make no attempt to try and interpret, opening with the powerful and almost optimistic sounding ā€˜I Just Moved Here’. Iā€˜m never a big fan of expletive laden lyrics but ā€˜Atomic Sparks’ does hit home melodically and lyrically, helped by a line that could be considered in so many different ways: ā€œDon't sabotage, don't get scared / This is a reconstruction / We're in helpless need of a new directionā€.


ā€˜Love Him Anyway’ and ā€˜So Cold’ are probably the most commercially appealing tracks, ā€˜Under the Sky’ and particularly ā€˜Autopsy’ both leave me scratching my head slightly. But concluding track ā€˜Can I Come Home’ is pretty sensational, an epic, soulful and powerful song, ending with a gorgeous instrumental section which makes me want to listen to the whole album again, and maybe try and understand it a little more.

Because whilst it is a pretty spectacular release and I’m sure it’ll be acclaimed by those who (unlike me) know what they’re talking about, I can’t deny it leaves me cold in places. Maybe the blazing synths and industrial scale production overwhelm, maybe the sweary lyrics in a few tracks switch me off, maybe I preferred the more intimate version of the duo in ā€˜Uranium Heart’. Maybe I just prefer guitars.


But the sheer scale of the album is impressive, and I probably need to just keep listening so that I can warm to it. I still like all the pre-album single releases after all and ā€˜Can I Come Home’ is a particular highlight. Their live shows this year will be phenomenal, it’s a shame they don’t seem to be doing any outside of London.

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