Maggie Rogers
Don’t Forget Me
CAPITOL
Eight years after a fortuitous meeting with Pharrell that turned her folktronica song “Alaska” into a surprise viral hit, alt-pop songwriter and producer Maggie Rogers delivers a third album that sounds more like a streamlined debut. Whereas 2019’s Heard It in a Past Life was overproduced and homogenous, 2022’s Surrender sounded like a more confident step forward into popstardrom and future summer festival circuits. The 10 tracks on Don’t Forget Me are unadorned pop and rock with weekend-warrior vibes and a yearning heart. The pre-pandemic electronic stylings are sanded down now and serve more to propel a few songs forward, but her melodic intent is still appealing and impactful.
Rogers co-produced the LP with assistance on eight of the tracks from pop and country producer Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris) at Electric Lady Studios. The buzzing intro song “It Was Coming All Along” is set up like a wandering phone call with Rogers singing both sides of the conversation as she addresses breaking through and not just hanging on. It’s an album mood setter more than anything, and sees her preparing for the ’90s pop-rock vibes which ultimately land with the Sheryl Crow–indebted road dog numbers “Drunk,” “So Sick of Dreaming,” “The Kill,” “On & on & On,” and “Never Going Home.”
The cross-country road trip interplay between acoustic and electric guitars on sides A and B are meant for the live stage, and they culminate with the nostalgic A-side closer “If Now Was Then.” It’s one of Rogers’ most carefree melodies in her young career, and the kind of strutting track that will get belted out of an open truck window on a summer road trip. The record’s two sides are bridged by the haunting ballad “I Still Do” in which Rogers sings to her partner over a sparse piano: “Darling I fear it’s time for us to do some growing…love is not a debt you pay.”
The end of the album slows the momentum of side A to a rainy day crawl with “All the Same” and “Don’t Forget Me.” Both are strong tracks on their own when placed in a varied setlist, but the sequencing is a bit rough on an overall robust and purposeful album. Rogers’ jump back to her folk and country roots feels correct after she pushed her folky electronic sound into the red on her first two releases.
