After loving her 2019 debut, Maggie Rogers made The High Note pinky promise to “Don’t Forget Me” with her third studio album.
Released April 12, 2024, through Debay Sounds and Capitol Records, the singer-songwriter’s latest release is back to telling relatable stories in her layered, upbeat folk-pop sound.
Rogers immediately pulls us into her world with her smooth synth-pop folk sound on the opening track “It Was Coming All Along.” One of my favorite parts that proves the authenticity of her sound is when she sings, “But, oh, I’ve still got Nora on the phone,” to which her friend Nora picks up a ringing telephone line and says, “Um, hello. How are you?”
“This album was written over five days, two songs a day — three days in December 2022, two in January 2023. It was written in chronological order.” Rogers said in a release about the album. “Eight of the ten songs were written with my sole collaborator and teammate on this album, Ian Fitchuk. The other two songs I uncovered on my own and were the product of my long friendship with Lee Foster, the Electric Lady manager who, in the days before Christmas, realized I was on a roll and gifted me an extra day of studio time to keep working and catching the songs coming through my hands.”
Fitchuk performed bass, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, keyboards, piano, and drums throughout and co-produced the album with Rogers at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. They were joined by electric guitarist Sam Evian on a couple of the tracks and singer Nora Neil on “It Was Coming All Along.”
The majority of the songs on the album are the duo captured live in the studio.
“Most of the performances you’ll hear are first takes. The recordings were initially a collection of demos to be re-recorded with a band,” Rogers said. “I think this is how and why it all came into being in the way that it did. I just thought we were playing, musically shaking hands for the first time. We met again in March to try to beef up the arrangements, but every time we tried to change them, we kept feeling like we lost something.”
The vibe speeds up for “Drunk,” reminding me a little bit of Kenny Rogers’s sound when he was with the First Edition, which has a country rock twang.
“So Sick of Dreaming” puts Rogers at her best—out front of a serious groove and painting a picture with her vivid vocabulary. Before the speaker in the song lays into the subject, she slays him in the chorus: “If you think that life without me’s like a heart attack, take a long look in the mirror and be good with that.”
I can’t resist her sweet sounds as Rogers enters for “The Kill.” Throughout the album, she capitalizes on that early 90s pop a la Wilson Phillips
I appreciate the album being written and recorded in order like how things slow down a little bit for “If Now Was Then” leading into the spellbinding piano ballad “I Still Do.” The latter shows Rogers in a new light that shows off a slower side that showcases her vocal talents.
Throughout the album, I’m drawn to the themes of triumph and independence on songs like “Never Going Home” and the authentic acoustic singer-songwriter sound of “All The Same.”
Rogers closes “Don’t Forget Me” with the title track, which is one of the standouts amongst the 10 stellar songs. She leans into the country side of folk as she breezes through the chorus that is easy to get carried away with.
For nearly 36 minutes, it’s hard to think about anything of the excellence of Maggie Rogers on her latest album, “Don’t Forget Me.” That’s a promise that The High Note aims to keep throughout this singer-songwriter’s ever-evolving career.
See Maggie Rogers with Ryan Beatty Oct. 15 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Oct. 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Get “Don’t Forget Me” from Maggie Rogers, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, Deezer and qobuz.
Favorite Tracks
It Was Coming All Along
Drunk
So Sick Of Dreaming
The Kill
I Still Do
Never Going Home
Don’t Forget Me
