Few singer-songwriters of the last decade have built a fanbase as absolutely adoring as Maggie Rogers. There’s a throughline all the way up the ladder to Taylor Swift. While Rogers isn’t filling arenas with radio pop anthems, the emotional frankness of her lyrics, and her authenticity, both in song and onstage, falls in the same lineage as the pop icon—and that is a compliment, to be sure. On Rogers’ third LP, Don’t Forget Me, she’s honed her songwriting to an incredible science: one part personal, heartfelt storytelling; one part instantly hummable melody; one part warm, organic, classic-rock arrangement. Mix, stir, release and watch the fans drink it down. Musically, the 10 songs on Don’t Forget Me find Rogers diving deep into lush, Fleetwood Mac-type expanses—shimmering, echoing guitar tones, dashes of piano and thumping bass, direct-but-mysterious melodicism and big, emotive choruses that will undoubtedly be sung in unison on her upcoming tour dates. In short, the album feels truly timeless—pop-rock done just right. Rogers has said that she wrote these songs in rapid succession and recorded mostly first takes. You can hear that immediacy. Where Rogers’ debut LP, Heard it in a Past Life, was awash in dense, layered production, Don’t Forget Me lays the songs bare—guitar, bass, piano, drums and Rogers’ powerhouse vocals. She knows that’s all she needs to let her heart show. The title track has all the force of a bruised Brandi Carlile ballad. She opens with the unadorned “My friend Sally’s getting married/And to me that sounds so scary” before an electrifying chorus asking for a lover to “love me ‘til your next somebody.” Rogers is embracing her vulnerability and humanity across the album—you’re invited to sing along.
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