Maggie Rogers

First known for her 2016 viral hit "Alaska," singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers combines folk, dance, and R&B into a powerfully emotional yet crowd-pleasing sound. Growing up in rural Maryland, Rogers began playing harp at age seven and loved the music of Gustav Holst and Vivaldi. Meanwhile, her mom played her neo-soul divas like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill; by the time she was in middle school, she'd added piano, guitar, and songwriting to her repertoire. While studying at St. Andrews School in Delaware, she fell in love with the banjo and folk music, and attended a Berklee School of Music program during the summer after her junior year. Rogers won the program's songwriting contest, which spurred her to focus on writing as high school came to a close. During her senior year, she turned a broom closet into a makeshift studio and recorded what became her first album, 2012's The Echo; Rogers included her demos as part of her application to New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. She released another folky album, 2014's Blood Ballet, during her sophomore year at the school. However, her sound was evolving, thanks in part to her discovery of electronic music while studying abroad in France. Rogers united the different strands of her music to huge success in 2016 with "Alaska," a song she wrote in 15 minutes about a hiking trip for a master class with Pharrell Williams. A video of a visibly moved Williams listening to the song went viral that June, resulting in millions of views as well as hundreds of thousands of plays of The Echo and Blood Ballet. Rogers released the finished version of "Alaska" later that month, and its accompanying EP, Now That the Light Is Fading, appeared in February 2017. Two more singles, "On and Off" and "Split Stones," also appeared that year, followed by Rogers announcing via Instagram that she would be going on a short hiatus. She returned in 2018 with the single "Fallingwater," which she wrote and produced with former Vampire Weekend producer and multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangli. ~ Heather Phares

Albums

10 albums sorted by Most acclaimed

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Heard It In A Past Life

Maggie Rogers

Alternative & Indie - Released January 18, 2019 | Capitol Records

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On the album cover of Heard It in a Past Life, Maggie Rogers looks at us as she lets a large red sheet float in the air, preparing to wrap us in her scarlet love. Through this symbolic gesture, the singer protects an audience that in turn protects her from the dark side of the limelight. The dazzling fame that the singer has recently become familiar with is precisely the subject of this debut album. In 2016, Maggie Rogers blew up the charts with her single Alaska, which (of course) we find on Heard It in a Past Life, alongside her other single Light on. The latter evokes the contradictory feelings that come with this flashy glory – on the one hand, there’s the anguish of being swept away, even destroyed, by a wave that you can’t always control. But on the other, there’s the joy brought by a benevolent audience. The same is true on Burning, in which the young woman from Maryland describes the tiring lifestyle that fame brings: "I've been sleeping/Barely dreaming/Through one year and one half." There’s an element of Judy Garland in Pharrell Williams' protégée, both in her complex relationships with success as well as in her vibrant voice. Perfectly reflecting Rogers' personality at this moment in time, the album is often energetic (with beats that get you up and dancing) yet displays an underlying melancholy. In Past Life, this sadness is explicitly expressed through her beautifully soft vocals. "Maybe there's a past life coming out inside of me", she sings – there’s a nostalgia for life before her success that she wants to keep hold of, so as not to lose control. In Retrograde, she even leans towards a regressive feeling. Perhaps this success came too soon, as she seems to admit on Say It. But in the final song, she emphasizes this vital force that never completely leaves her (Back in My Body). Generally speaking, the "positive melancholy" that characterizes Maggie Rogers on this album has the merit of making people dance while being highly introspective. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

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Give A Little

Maggie Rogers

Alternative & Indie - Released September 21, 2018 | Capitol Records

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Now That The Light Is Fading

Maggie Rogers

Alternative & Indie - Released February 16, 2017 | Capitol Records (US1A)

Now That the Light Is Fading is the first major-label release from Maggie Rogers, a modern singer/songwriter who first started releasing indie digital EPs back in 2012. This EP arrives five years later, which may be why it seems eerily assured. Unlike many debuts, Rogers isn't stumbling through either her songs or sound. These five songs -- all anchored in atmospheric electronics -- are assured, tightly constructed compositions graced with glassy electronics. Rogers' vocals wind up giving these otherwise icy productions some warmth, and if the five songs all adhere to a general aesthetic, they're also varied. "Color Song" is a tone poem, "Alaska" feels as intimate as a straight folk song, "On + Off" percolates with a distinct claustrophobic rhythm, "Dog Years" is as stylish as Elle Goulding, and "Better" is a bittersweet denouement. All combined, this adds up to a rich and impressive official debut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine