Hatchie – Liquorice

The cover of Liquorice, the third album from Australian indie pop artist Hatchie, features a closely cropped portrait of Harriette Pilbeam laughing, her smudged red lipstick suggesting the glorious aftermath of a kiss. Captured during a spontaneous backyard photo shoot using a dinky digital camera, the image encapsulates a record that is rough around the edges and joyfully undone with themes of longing, lust, and regret.

Pilbeam began writing Liquorice in earnest while living in Brisbane over 2022-2023, and later at a home shared with Agius in Melbourne, ultimately completing the demos in mid-2024. As a musician who has previously worn her influences on her sleeve, Pilbeam strove to write from scratch without any specific musical influences in mind; allowing songs to breathe for weeks, rather than rushing ideas. She found herself drawn to the melodic simplicity of her early songs and embraced her musical insecurities: “I wanted to see my limitations as strengths that inform my style.”

Liquorice is preoccupied with the finite forever. These songs capture the overwhelming, exhilarating, and transforming side-effects of infatuation, even if the entirety of the love story only lasts for one magical night. Like the rich flavors of the twisty, titular candy——sweet, salty, and bitter all in one bite—Liquorice validates how longing and obsession are intertwined in the self-discovery of young womanhood.