Am I Angry Enough? Hilke asks on her new album. Across ten tracks, she guides us through emotional landscapes hidden in the darkest corners of her transfeminine identity and explores the self-empowerment found in feminist rage. Musically, it’s anything but cerebral — vulnerable, gentle, profoundly sad, and yet hopeful. If anger is a catalyst for such art, there’s only one answer: Yes, Hilke. Just angry enough.
From the opening line, we’re plunged into a theme that continues throughout the record: "All the things that I didn’t want to be, is that what you really need from me?" Hilke asks, in an enchanting timbre that's very much of her own, on the track loud. On Am I Angry Enough?, she takes us on a journey into her innermost self. The question “Who am I?” is examined from every angle — perhaps because the answer is never simple. It’s never found in extremes, but in the spaces between.
Musically, Am I Angry Enough? bridges the gap between Silent Violent (2021) and Piano Feroce (2024), blending melancholic, acoustic soundscapes, electronic beats, dystopian samples, and the gentle tones of a felt piano. To create her new songs, Hilke retreated to a former hotel beneath the Piz Mundaun in the Swiss Alps, where she laid the foundation for the album. Without piano keys at her disposal, she was forced to rethink harmonies. The resulting multilayered soundscapes are surprising — slack ends in an epic, intricate electronic odyssey, while drip begins like a madrigal, maintaining a sacred tone, with alarming sirens wailing faintly in the background.
Despite the heaviness and darkness of Am I Angry Enough?, occasional windows open, and with each breath, hope fills the lungs and spreads through the bloodstream. Sometimes, it’s the anger from within that reminds us we’re alive.
