The Fat Angel Sings

Released on 2nd June, The Age Of Anxiety is a brave step forward from Pixx’s first release, 2015’s Fall In EP.  A deeply personal document of heartbreak, those four folk-infused torch songs drew early critical praise, with the Sunday Times hailing it “one of the most arresting debuts of the year,” and led to tours with the likes of Daughter, Lush and Glass Animals.

Instead of tales of loss and affairs of the heart, The Age Of Anxiety finds Hannah Rodgers ostensibly place herself outside looking in.  Her twelve-song collection seeks to address a generation increasingly isolated by an unprecedented new world order, from the pressures of social media to ever-changing political turbulence.

This bold debut borrows its title from W.H. Auden’s final poem, charting one man’s quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialised world.  Published in 1947, Auden’s six-part rumination on human isolation in the modern age parallels the overarching themes of Pixx’s work some 70 years later.

Originally from Chipstead, just beyond the fringes of south London where suburban sprawl start to break into countryside, Rodgers experienced a year-long period of insomnia caused by recurring nightmares at age 9 – her first awareness of anxiety. It left a lasting impression, inspiring a fascination with different states of consciousness, and is one of many somnolent events she draws upon for The Age Of Anxiety.