Giving the World Away, the sophomore album from Hatchie, is the truest introduction to the songwriter at the helm of the project. Although her sound arrived fully-formed, a dazzling dream-pop and shoegaze tangle, it’s here that Hatchie fully distills the core of herself into a record.

“I’m capable of writing more than just nice dream-pop songs, and there’s more to me than just writing songs about being in love or being heartbroken — there’s a bigger picture than that,” Hatchie explains. “This album really just feels like the beginning to me, and scratching the surface – and even though it’s my third release as Hatchie, I feel like I’m rebooting from scratch.”

Produced by Jorge Elbrecht, known for his work with Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast, and Wild Nothing, Giving the World Away is Hatchie’s most thunderous, sprawling work yet. Featuring intensive input from longtime Hatchie collaborator Joe Agius, it takes the celestial, shimmering shoegaze and pop sensibilities of her earlier releases, but with the volume knob cranked up tenfold. Built out with percussion from Beach House drummer James Barone, it’s synthed-out, sonic opulence, a more structured and ornate musicality with traces of ‘90s trip-hop and acid house influences.

On this record, Hatchie held herself to higher standards, especially with personal lyrical precision. At the time she started working on it, she was caught in a strange headspace. When 2018 EP Sugar & Spice and subsequent debut LP Keepsake both arrived to critical acclaim and catapulted Hatchie into an international spotlight, she felt both unsure of herself and an intense, self-imposed pressure to keep going forward. Trapped in constant motion, Hatchie was unable to be present or appreciative of herself, both professionally and personally.

Hatchie initially intended for these songs to go in a higher-energy direction — she had the distinct vision of a Hatchie show turned dance party, inviting more movement and vibrancy into her live shows. But then, between Covid and the lockdowns in Australia, Hatchie retreated more into herself, and that introspection and self-discovery served as the true inspiration for the record. Again and again across Giving the World Away, she returns to that same theme – dismantling internalized shame and finding gratitude and steadiness, and finally being able to trust herself. Hatchie grew up the youngest in her family, a self-described “big baby,” but says the last year and a half gave her the space to understand herself better. After years of emotional avoidance, here she excavates her fears fully.

Giving the World Away is an album about self-confidence, about reclamation, about the strange time in young adulthood where you begin to finally be able to see yourself clearly. Incisive and probing, Giving the World Away is the clearest look at Hatchie yet, and a relic of the power and bravery that spring forth from embracing vulnerability and putting your heart on the line.