Nick Hakim
WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD
ATO
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Context is everything. Which artist could have guessed that their new album would be released during a global pandemic running rampant and forcing huge chunks of the population to shield themselves from the very real risk of serious illness or worse?
The fact that it is being handled abysmally by the current raft of average, privileged, white middle-class men in charge is perhaps less of a surprise. This is the context within which Nick Hakim finds himself releasing his sophomore album and, judging by the lyrical content, he already found modern life a struggle beset by a multitude of problems.
His debut LP Green Twins from 2017 found a winning formula of woozy psychedelics with enough urgency to cut through and linger long in the memory. Here, on his follow-up, he pushes the psychedelia further and revels in a world of even greater reverb, echo and languorous beats. The main issue here though, is that this time there are far fewer memorable melodies to slice through the effects to stay with the listener after the album has finished.
It does have its charms though and when he hits the spot, there is precious little sweeter. The three tracks that preceded the album’s release are head and shoulders above all else that the album contains.
“BOUNCING” is filled with drama from the opening lines, “Seek a mastermind / A seer who can provide a sign / I’ve been tryna find / Peace.” The sense of dramatic tension is only amplified by a beat that threatens to grind to a halt at any given moment, resulting in a portentous dread that the song will halt, before the tension is released by the return of the beat just as it threatens to be missed altogether.
As the beat continues at its unctuous, syrupy pace, an organ swirls in the rear of the mix and Hakim finds solace in the repeated refrain of “All these lonely strangers marching through the snow storm / Tryna find some piece of mind, we all keep bouncing.” The end is proof that chaos need not be frantic as distortion, reverb and snatches of strings ring out cacophonously to the slow-motion beat while Hakim screams his frustration out.
“CRUMPY” again starts with lyrics that conjure up a deep sense of discontent: “This town has really started to grow on me / My face has become one with the concrete / My limbs have rashes from the road / My voice sounds like the screaming train / That you’ve been riding.” The warmth generated by Mac Ayres’ guitar and Hakim’s voice is immensely comforting and lights up another blissfully paced beat.
Lurking inside the lyrics here though, is a hint as to what is perhaps missing from the album as a whole. As he sings “God damn, I wish my baby was here / ‘Cause I have violence / Lingering inside but you help me fight it,” it’s hard not to wish that that anger flared more readily in the music. For all that he screams or screeches occasionally, it feels constrained and bound by self-imposed limits. A little more ire would go down well.
The crowning glory on the album is “QADIR.” An ode to a friend who passed away, it is swaddled in heartbreak and powerlessness in the face of loss. The drums are crisper than anything else on the album and Hakim’s whispered, hesitant delivery makes it teeter on the brink of total emotional annihilation. As it progresses further, the celestial vocals of KING add even more emotional heft, making it almost unbearably sad. Crucially though it has the strongest melody of the album and the most restrained effects—the same winning combination of his debut.
Too often on the rest of the album, the effects seem to overshadow the melody, as if creating an atmosphere has become more important than the songwriting. “ALL THESE CHANGES” starts promisingly before it veers off down dead ends, before returning to the memorable portion of the melody. The warped industrial sounding drums of “WTMMG” start off well enough, but the song is disappointingly one-paced—it goes nowhere.
Of the rest of the album, the closest to his best is “GOD’S DIRTY WORK.” Again, the histrionics of reverbs and endless echoes are mainly ditched in favor of a slight blurring around the edges and a stronger drum presence. It is still a tad single-paced, but it has that same blissful groove that is so intoxicating.
Hakim has said in interviews to accompany the album’s arrival that he hit a prolonged bout of writer’s block before emerging with the album. Equally he has confessed to feeling unsure about it and that he was “still figuring it out” on the eve of release. At its best, it seems the block was overcome with the same style and panache as his other work, but at other times it seems that weaker melodies were obscured and covered over by an abundance of effects designed to distract from that fact.
Ultimately, it is similar to the state sanctioned daily walks undertaken during lockdown—a nice distraction from the monotony and worry, but ultimately unfulfilling. You are left yearning for more, for broader horizons and the promise of greater things surely to come.
Notable Tracks: “BOUNCING” | “CRUMPY” | “GOD’S DIRTY WORK” | “QADIR”
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