Ken's Best of 2021 - #6: Little Hag - Leash

To be completely honest, I didn't really like Leash that much when it first came out back in September. It was good, but considering how much I loved her 2020 album Whatever Happened to Avery Jane?, I wanted to love it more. So, like we did back in the 80's and 90's before we had virtually every single album at our fingertips and we were dropping anywhere from $8 to $20 on an album, I kept listening to it. Slowly I started finding more and more to love about the songs on Leash. Was it a little more poppy than the previous album? Definitely. But the more I listened the less pop it was. Or, it was at least this bizarre form of pop that would be the Taylor Swift of Bizarro world. A song like "Cherry" perfectly encapsulates this. It didn't click for a while. The first few times I listened it was ok, but it's slowly become one of my favorites on the album. It's this gloriously heartfelt song that brings the 50's crooner thing into modern pop... but only on some bizarre planet that appreciates better music than ours does. At this point I'm furious with myself for not enjoying this album properly for the first few months of its existence. 

Songs of note: "The Whole World," "Cherry," "Blood," and "Get Real!"

Little Hag - "Cherry"

With all the excitement from Little Hag releasing her Breakfast EP last month, we had forgotten she also had an album due out this month. Luckily, a new single is out to remind us. "Cherry" sees the New Jersey based Avery Mandeville expanding on her sound a bit. This is a flat out power ballad. Sure, it's an indie pop/rock power ballad, but this is the kind of ballad that every New Jersey artist is legally obligated to make. Mandeville knocks this one straight out of the park. Sure, "Cherry" is a bit cheesy, but all power ballads are. Mandeville's charm keeps this from getting overly cheesy and keeps it utterly compelling.

You can listen to "Cherry" below. Leash is due out September 24. You can pre-order a copy over at Bandcamp. For more on Little Hag, check out the artist's Facebook.

Little Hag - "Get Real"

Little Hag came out of virtually nowhere to release what was probably If It's Too Loud...'s album of 2021, Whatever Happened to Avery Jane? (It was my #4 album of the year and Jeff's #2.) Avery Mandeville's musical project is back with a new-ish single, "Get Real." In a Facebook post, Little Hag states that this is a remixed song, possibly from her time recording music under the name Avery Mandeville. (It's hard to find her previous releases online...) This version of get real is a bizarre version of pop punk goes dirty protopunk. It's a lot edgier than what we got with the previous album. Of course, then the song takes a few unexpected swerves into the realm of Gwen Stefani style pop. Finally the song goes into more of an alt-singer/songwriter territory, so it's wonderfully all over the place while still sounding like parts of one cohesive song.

You can listen to "Get Real" below. Little Hag has two new releases coming out in the next two months: An EP titled Breakfast on August 11 and an album called Leash on September 24, both presumably on Bar None Records. You can pre-save/pre-order these here. Little Hag is playing a show this Friday (July 16) at the House of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ. For more on Little Hag, check out the artist on Facebook.