Maggie Rogers – Split Stones

Like her breakthrough track, ‘Alaska’, Maggie Rogers’ ‘Split Stones’ is built from field recordings harvested on a hiking trip - this time, to Oregon. It’s a foundation that conjures up endless images of Maggie running around the wilderness holding a dictaphone and hitting various things with a stick, but this aside, the Marylander has a special knack for making it all sound sleek and percussive, carving a clean pop song out of the most basic natural origins; even her own breath becoming an instrument .

According to Maggie this latest track is her last before taking a break; presumably to write new material that reflects her incredible rise over the last year. She wrote the song back in college (long before the fabled seminar in which she played her music to a one Pharrell Williams) and with a lyrical urge to seize every chance - “if you would only move like you had something to lose,” she urges- it’s a fitting farewell for now from one of 2017’s brightest talents. (El Hunt)