Pixx

Pixx makes the kind of music that rewards paying attention. Hannah Rogers went to the BRIT School as a teenager, which is context but not the story. What matters is what she does with it—pulling Dylan and Joni Mitchell into something that also contains Aphex Twin, and having it actually cohere instead of sound like someone checking boxes.

Her album’s called The Age Of Anxiety. She borrowed the title from a notebook her brother gave her—it’s from Auden’s final poem, the one about a man searching for substance and meaning in a world becoming increasingly mechanical and impersonal. That’s the territory she’s working, essentially. Not looking for comfort.

The production is sparse on purpose. You hear the thinking in the choices. There’s a clarity to it that makes you realize how much unnecessary decoration fills most pop music. She’s not interested in impressing you with density. Just what actually needs to be there.