Heard It in a Past Life | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 18, 2019 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 45:27 | |||
Label |
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Producer |
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Maggie Rogers chronology | ||||
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Singles from Heard It in a Past Life | ||||
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Heard It in a Past Life is the debut studio album by American indie pop singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, released on January 18, 2019, by Debay Sounds and Capitol Records. With help from its hit single " Light On" (2018), the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and received mostly positive reviews from critics, eventually earning Rogers a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.
Rogers worked on the album for two years, with Rostam Batmanglij, Greg Kurstin, and other high-profile musicians in producer roles. [1] Rogers stated in an interview about the album that "there was so much change that happened so fast, I wasn't always sure how to make all this stuff feel like me. I was really overwhelmed for a while, and scared too." [2] [3]
The first two singles, " Alaska" and " On + Off", were previously released on Rogers' 2017 EP, Now That the Light Is Fading, followed by " Fallingwater", "Give a Little" and " Light On". [4] [5] "Light On" peaked at number one on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart, becoming her first number one song on any Billboard chart. [6] "Light On" was ranked as the 13th best song of 2019 by Billboard. [7]
Heard It in a Past Life was released on January 18, 2019, by Debay Sounds under exclusive license to Capitol Records. [8] According to Rolling Stone, it "announced her as a major indie-pop force and catapulted her into a yearlong tour of sold-out theaters and massive clubs". [9] It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 in its first release week, and by April, it had sold 200,000 album-equivalent units. Since its 2019 release, the album has amassed more than 900 million streams on Spotify. [10]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.0/10 [11] |
Metacritic | 71/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Chicago Tribune | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Clash | 8/10 [15] |
Exclaim! | 8/10 [16] |
The Guardian | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Irish Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
NME | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 5.9/10 [20] |
Q | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Heard It in a Past Life was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on 23 reviews. [12] Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times called it a "vibrant electro-pop collection", [18] while USA Today's Maeve McDermott hailed it as one of 2019's best folk-pop albums, along with Weyes Blood's Titanic Rising. [23] Q magazine found the album "thoughtfully constructed and often enchanting", [21] and AllMusic's Heather Phares said Rogers "finds different ways to forge her own bright, assured version of pop" on a "strong debut". [13]
Other reviewers were more critical. Both Laura Snapes of Pitchfork [20] and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune believed much of the album was overproduced by high-profile co-producers to the detriment of Rogers' talents. [14] Tom Hull said he "could see her developing into some kind of pop star, but may be too adult too early", giving the album a B-plus. [24]
Heard It in a Past Life and "Light On" helped earn Rogers a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best New Artist for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards (2020). [25]
Publication | List | Rank | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Albumism | Albumism's 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 38 | [26] |
Billboard | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 5 | [27] |
Chorus.fm | Top 25 Albums of 2019 | 23 | [28] |
Complex | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 25 | [29] |
Consequence of Sound | The Top 50 Albums of 2019 | 25 | [30] |
Esquire | 20 Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [31] |
GQ | Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [32] |
Inside Hook | 20 Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [33] |
The New Yorker | The Best Music of 2019 | N/A | [34] |
Paste | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 26 | [35] |
PopCrush | Best Pop Albums of 2019 | N/A | [36] |
Rolling Stone | 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 41 | [37] |
Vice | The 100 Best Albums of 2019 | 88 | [38] |
"N/A" indicates that the publication did not rank the works included in their year-end list.
Track listing and credits adapted from Tidal. [39]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Give a Little" |
| 3:46 | |
2. | "Overnight" |
|
| 3:20 |
3. | "The Knife" |
|
| 3:59 |
4. | " Alaska" |
|
| 3:08 |
5. | " Light On" |
|
| 3:53 |
6. | "Past Life" | Rogers | Rogers | 3:36 |
7. | "Say It" |
|
| 3:40 |
8. | " On + Off" |
|
| 3:41 |
9. | " Fallingwater" |
|
| 4:31 |
10. | "Retrograde" |
|
| 4:11 |
11. | "Burning" |
|
| 3:33 |
12. | "Back in My Body" |
|
| 4:09 |
Total length: | 45:27 |
Musicians
Technical
Chart (2019) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums ( ARIA) [40] | 8 |
Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Flanders) [41] | 92 |
Canadian Albums ( Billboard) [42] | 10 |
Dutch Albums ( Album Top 100) [43] | 95 |
Irish Albums ( IRMA) [44] | 30 |
Scottish Albums ( OCC) [45] | 18 |
Swiss Albums ( Schweizer Hitparade) [46] | 49 |
UK Albums ( OCC) [47] | 25 |
US Billboard 200 [48] | 2 |
US Top Alternative Albums ( Billboard) [49] | 1 |
US Top Tastemaker Albums ( Billboard) [50] | 3 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada ( Music Canada) [51] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
United States ( RIAA) [52] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Heard It in a Past Life | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 18, 2019 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 45:27 | |||
Label |
| |||
Producer |
| |||
Maggie Rogers chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Heard It in a Past Life | ||||
|
Heard It in a Past Life is the debut studio album by American indie pop singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, released on January 18, 2019, by Debay Sounds and Capitol Records. With help from its hit single " Light On" (2018), the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and received mostly positive reviews from critics, eventually earning Rogers a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.
Rogers worked on the album for two years, with Rostam Batmanglij, Greg Kurstin, and other high-profile musicians in producer roles. [1] Rogers stated in an interview about the album that "there was so much change that happened so fast, I wasn't always sure how to make all this stuff feel like me. I was really overwhelmed for a while, and scared too." [2] [3]
The first two singles, " Alaska" and " On + Off", were previously released on Rogers' 2017 EP, Now That the Light Is Fading, followed by " Fallingwater", "Give a Little" and " Light On". [4] [5] "Light On" peaked at number one on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart, becoming her first number one song on any Billboard chart. [6] "Light On" was ranked as the 13th best song of 2019 by Billboard. [7]
Heard It in a Past Life was released on January 18, 2019, by Debay Sounds under exclusive license to Capitol Records. [8] According to Rolling Stone, it "announced her as a major indie-pop force and catapulted her into a yearlong tour of sold-out theaters and massive clubs". [9] It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 in its first release week, and by April, it had sold 200,000 album-equivalent units. Since its 2019 release, the album has amassed more than 900 million streams on Spotify. [10]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.0/10 [11] |
Metacritic | 71/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Chicago Tribune | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Clash | 8/10 [15] |
Exclaim! | 8/10 [16] |
The Guardian | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Irish Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
NME | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 5.9/10 [20] |
Q | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Heard It in a Past Life was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on 23 reviews. [12] Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times called it a "vibrant electro-pop collection", [18] while USA Today's Maeve McDermott hailed it as one of 2019's best folk-pop albums, along with Weyes Blood's Titanic Rising. [23] Q magazine found the album "thoughtfully constructed and often enchanting", [21] and AllMusic's Heather Phares said Rogers "finds different ways to forge her own bright, assured version of pop" on a "strong debut". [13]
Other reviewers were more critical. Both Laura Snapes of Pitchfork [20] and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune believed much of the album was overproduced by high-profile co-producers to the detriment of Rogers' talents. [14] Tom Hull said he "could see her developing into some kind of pop star, but may be too adult too early", giving the album a B-plus. [24]
Heard It in a Past Life and "Light On" helped earn Rogers a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best New Artist for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards (2020). [25]
Publication | List | Rank | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Albumism | Albumism's 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 38 | [26] |
Billboard | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 5 | [27] |
Chorus.fm | Top 25 Albums of 2019 | 23 | [28] |
Complex | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 25 | [29] |
Consequence of Sound | The Top 50 Albums of 2019 | 25 | [30] |
Esquire | 20 Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [31] |
GQ | Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [32] |
Inside Hook | 20 Best Albums of 2019 | N/A | [33] |
The New Yorker | The Best Music of 2019 | N/A | [34] |
Paste | The 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 26 | [35] |
PopCrush | Best Pop Albums of 2019 | N/A | [36] |
Rolling Stone | 50 Best Albums of 2019 | 41 | [37] |
Vice | The 100 Best Albums of 2019 | 88 | [38] |
"N/A" indicates that the publication did not rank the works included in their year-end list.
Track listing and credits adapted from Tidal. [39]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Give a Little" |
| 3:46 | |
2. | "Overnight" |
|
| 3:20 |
3. | "The Knife" |
|
| 3:59 |
4. | " Alaska" |
|
| 3:08 |
5. | " Light On" |
|
| 3:53 |
6. | "Past Life" | Rogers | Rogers | 3:36 |
7. | "Say It" |
|
| 3:40 |
8. | " On + Off" |
|
| 3:41 |
9. | " Fallingwater" |
|
| 4:31 |
10. | "Retrograde" |
|
| 4:11 |
11. | "Burning" |
|
| 3:33 |
12. | "Back in My Body" |
|
| 4:09 |
Total length: | 45:27 |
Musicians
Technical
Chart (2019) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums ( ARIA) [40] | 8 |
Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Flanders) [41] | 92 |
Canadian Albums ( Billboard) [42] | 10 |
Dutch Albums ( Album Top 100) [43] | 95 |
Irish Albums ( IRMA) [44] | 30 |
Scottish Albums ( OCC) [45] | 18 |
Swiss Albums ( Schweizer Hitparade) [46] | 49 |
UK Albums ( OCC) [47] | 25 |
US Billboard 200 [48] | 2 |
US Top Alternative Albums ( Billboard) [49] | 1 |
US Top Tastemaker Albums ( Billboard) [50] | 3 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada ( Music Canada) [51] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
United States ( RIAA) [52] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |