A song about turning 33, backed by a children's choir, sounds like a deliberately engineered gap in time — it's how Marika Hackman chooses to handle what she calls "the dull ache of nostalgia." The single, "33," opens her fifth studio album *False Dogs* and sets the emotional tone for the whole record.
*False Dogs* is set for release on February 19 via Chrysalis Records, with 12 tracks in total. What makes this album stand out is that Hackman played nearly every instrument herself — guitar, piano, drums, bass, mandolin and synths. The writing process began at her personal studio in East London, before she wrapped things up over ten days at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate, letting the sound of the Kent coastline quietly seep into the album's backdrop — echoing the record's themes of nostalgia, growing up, and feeling your way forward through self-doubt.
"I feel like this is the first time I've truly filled my own creative personality right up to the edges," Hackman says of the record.
The single "33" dropped on Wednesday, October 14, with a music video directed by JOFI Films. Hackman says the song "deals with the dull ache of nostalgia, anxiety about the future, and celebrating the moments in between — that it's worth it to keep moving forward." The song's timeline stretches from age 17 into her 30s, and the children's choir gives that span of time a concrete sonic shape.
The full tracklist for *False Dogs* is: "33," "Close To Me," "I'm Good," "Handsome," "The Blows," "Be Surprised," "Everything You Wanted," "Ha_Happy," "Half Painted Dog," "Hello Sunshine," "Lying Down," "Crimson."
The Biggest Tour of Her Career Kicks Off at London's Royal Festival Hall
Alongside the album announcement comes Hackman's biggest UK and European tour to date. It kicks off on February 26, 2027 at London's Royal Festival Hall, before moving to Bristol Beacon on March 1, St Luke's in Glasgow on March 2, and Stoller Hall in Manchester on March 3.
The European leg begins at Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam on March 6, with further stops at Botanique in Brussels (March 7), Le Trabendo in Paris (March 9), Gebäude 9 in Cologne (March 11), Molotow in Hamburg (March 12), Heimathafen in Berlin (March 13), and Vega in Copenhagen (March 16), before wrapping up at Debaser in Stockholm on March 17. Presale tickets open October 22 at 10am UK time, with general on-sale following October 23 at the same time.
Hackman's previous album, *Big Sigh*, came out in January 2024 and earned a four-star review from NME, which called it "a fine follow-up to *Any Human Friend* ... if *Any Human Friend* was the rebound, *Big Sigh* is the moment all those neglected feelings finally catch up with you and you fall apart — a defining moment in the career of one of the UK's most intriguing singer-songwriters." Since then, she's also released a new version of "Skin" as a duet with Laura Marling, originally from her debut album *We Slept At Last*, released a decade earlier.
