Elodie A. Roy discovers a self-assured reissue of the Chicago-based artist’s debut solo album, replete with additional delights
Full Time Hobby
Released: 11.11.22
Macie Stewart is a familiar name on the Chicago scene. In the past fifteen years the singer and multi-instrumentalist joined hip-hop collective Kids These Days, founded the rock band Marrow and the art pop duo Finom (aka OHMME), and arranged songs for countless musicians. She crosses musical genres with a soft, self-effacing grace.
Originally released last year and now reissued with two additional songs, Mouth Full of Glass is her first solo album. This is chamber pop, with sweetly slippery string arrangements, slow, secretive guitars and quietly circuitous lyrics. Like those of Marina Allen and Sam Burton, Stewart’s songs belong to a lost decade. But the 1970s pastiche seems fully unintended: Stewart follows all, and no one in particular. She is unhurriedly growing into herself.