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Oct 11, 2022At 14 tracks, Hysteria is a longer album than Echo, and it doesn’t always maintain its intensity. The push and pull between ballads and bolder songs sometimes sacrifices the momentum. But the wider lens, which allows Sparke to dial up both her indie-rock sound and sweeping songwriting, is still impressive.
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Oct 11, 2022Sparke clearly had a dedicated goal with this record: capture the confusing and fluctuating feelings inside of her and linger in them without analysis or explanation. Hysteria’s consistent sound arises organically out of that project, and your appreciation for it is contingent on your willingness to engage with that project in the first place.
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Oct 11, 2022Whereas her first album had a more bare-bones acoustic feel, this one takes on a more produced sound—and in this movement in a pop direction, it feels like Sparke could have worked to make her sound a bit more dynamic, pushing further outside of her comfort zone than she did. While Dessner’s production fills out her sound nicely, it also blurs the boundaries between her songs, allowing them to bleed into each other if you’re not paying active attention.