Maggie Rogers: Heard it in a Past Life review – Vibrant electro-pop collection

Just in case you're thinking that 24-year-old US songwriter and singer Maggie Rogers is a brand new kid on the 2019 block, let it be known that Heard it in a Past Life is her third album.

The first independently released pair (2012's The Echo, 2014's Blood Ballet) siphoned fuel from folk/Americana tanks, but from the outset it's clear that her major label debut is pitching her into an altogether more commercial area.

Growing up in rural Maryland, playing the harp at seven and the banjo shortly after, Rogers had very little knowledge of pop music until a few years ago when, as a senior at NYU, she performed a pop song (Alaska) as part of a songwriting master class held by Pharrell Williams. Cue sizeable viral exposure.

Now primed to kickstart the year with a vibrant collection of songs – hints of Bjork, Adele, and Sigrid indicate notable mainstream success – there is much to recommend Rogers’s take on electro-pop.

Influences aside, there is enough evidence here – particularly in her incisive lyrics – to indicate that an authentic voice will eventually find its mark.