Drama – Hajk Album Review

Track Listing

Keep Telling Myself
Get It Right
Dancing Like This
Sorry
Time To Forget
Breathe
As Loud As It Gets
Tokyo
Desperately
Snowball

After their successful debut back in 2017, Scandi-Pop group Hajk return for an eclectic blend of Indie Pop and synth-driven melodies in Drama. Although the album feels a little front-heavy, with some of the best songs occurring early on, the reflective, sombre tone toward the end works perfectly to give the album some much-needed depth.

The album opens with Keep Telling Myself, a tightly produced track that slowly builds up to a string-heavy crescendo. From here, two of my personal favourite tracks of the album, Get It Right and Dancing Like This hit, perfectly typifying this upbeat yet bittersweet tone. It’s these tracks in particular that are infectiously catchy and echoes of Years & Years’ style oozes throughout.

From here, the album then slows in tone to a more reflective style with Sorry. The rest of the album combines these two styles of varying tempos. Instrumental song Tokyo feels a little misplaced coming off the back of As Loud As It Gets and perhaps may have been better placed at the end as a reflective instrumental bite but it’s a minor point in an otherwise enjoyable album.

There’s an interesting use of both digital and live performances here that work surprisingly well together. For the most part, these two styles blend nicely and it’s barely noticeable that these two techniques have been used. There’s a crisp polish to each song too and a clever use of breathing to really emphasise the thematic meaning behind the album – taking a deep breath and seeing the bigger picture. It’s a beautiful message and something that really helps give the group’s second album some much-needed depth, tying everything together.

Hajk’s new album Drama is an infectious, hedonistic blend of dreamy melodies and heartfelt lyrics. While the first half of the album is a little stronger in terms of track quality, the entire album oozes confidence with a genre-splitting sound, blurring the line between R&B, Synth-Pop and Indie Rock. It’s a great balance too and one that makes Hajk’s album well worth checking out.

Hajk’s album “Drama” is available to listen in CD format and for digital streaming on the 15th February 2019.