The Singles Jukebox

We’ll be clear: We’re not even slightly disenchanted…

[Video]
[7.67]

Ian Mathers: So last time I started out by talking about the way I loved that I couldn’t quite be sure what Hatchie was singing, and sure enough she’s doing it again here, although in this case it’s the title phrase. Despite that handy clue I would still swear it’s “disenchanted” about half the time, which I actually like even more because it doesn’t fit the narrative of the rest of the song. I’m also terribly fond of how the end leans even further into full jet-turbine shoegaze than Hatchie has tended to (yes, I am a sucker for that). I do wish the bridge went a little harder, or even just that they smeared that ending roar over the whole thing, but honestly I loved “Stay With Me” and the rest of Keepsake (my favourite record of 2019!) that I had that trepidation I think most of us get when an artist in that position finally puts out a new song; could “This Enchanted” live up to my own, personal hype? My relief is as palpable as my enjoyment.
[9]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: There’s a push-pull tension here that I missed in Hatchie’s earlier work: the clarity of the drums and the house pianos up against the titanic formlessness of the rest of her instrumentation. It’s an ecosystem all to itself, a song that seems bigger and bigger even as it focuses in on little moments — the way that that she says “right” as she sings about things never feeling that way, the way the hook never quite locates the target of its titular adjective.
[9]

Michael Hong: There’s a trick in the placement of the shoegaze element, blurring what comes before the word “enchanted” so it could be heard as either “this,” a girl trying to stay in a doomed relationship, or “dis-,” the memory of another girl already gone. Hatchie’s title gives it away, making its lack of a big moment disappointing, leaving the brightest thing to cling to that one line: “It shouldn’t have to be so hard.”
[6]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A by-the-books crying-in-the-clurb Hatchie bop. The way that “this enchanted” repeated over and over in a trace-like fashion begins to sound like “disenchanted” has to be some sort of metaphor for romance, right? 
[8]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: The Amen drums. The noise-drowned guitars. The driving bass. The delay. The arpeggiators on the bridge. The ambiguous pronunciation of “this enchanted/disenchanted”. Harriette Pilbeam (who was born five days before me) goes maximalist in the best way. It’s a song I wish I’d had in high school, a sound that’s been done but hits perfectly for me at this exact moment. Everything feels like it’s where it needs to be, as Hatchie struggles to let go of something that’s already gone. 
[9]

Alfred Soto: With an intro whose keyboard nods toward house and a vast distortion-echo effect before the chorus, “This Enchanted” coughed pixie dust from its opening minutes. Were it not for its insistent winsomeness I could hear Curve getting away with it in 1992.
[7]

Dorian Sinclair: I love the way the intro on “This Enchanted” unfolds, with that jangly saloon piano (always a fave) crossfading into the wash of other sounds. It’s a trick that is repeated throughout the song, with clarity in the verses and a foggy, fuzzed-out chorus. This lines up very well with what the lyrics are doing, which sounds like a low bar, but it’s less often than you think that artists take the time to sound like what they’re saying. Smart writing, that grows on me the more I listen. Killer bassline, too.
[7]

Oliver Maier: The platonic ideal of a Hatchie song, which is to say: so lyrically nothing and so musically simple that you almost resent it being irresistible anyway.
[7]

Austin Nguyen: Less a dream and more a shoegaze-pop plunge into headlong, sparkling, dizzying lovesickness that makes my stomach feel knotted. Brb, finding a new crush.
[7]