8/10

Eight years can change the shape of a life entirely. Relationships fracture, families grow, old versions of the self fall away and the future begins asking questions that once seemed distant. And on her latest LP 'Beautiful Mess', Gin Wigmore gathers the emotional debris of that transformation and builds a record that refuses to separate tenderness from fury, or survival from celebration.

The New Zealand singer-songwriter has never been an artist who disappears quietly into the background. Her unmistakable rasp has always carried a certain danger, as though every line has been dragged through smoke before reaching the microphone. Yet her fourth studio album appears to reveal a broader emotional range behind that familiar defiance.

Across the record, she confronts the defining experiences of her recent years, including separation, parenthood, grief and the complicated evolution of love. These subjects could easily have produced something overwhelmingly sombre. Instead, she retains the mischievous spark that has long prevented her music from becoming weighed down by its own seriousness.

The album’s two-part design gives those contradictions a clear musical form. Its opening half leans towards the weathered intimacy of country and Americana, drawing upon the emotional directness associated with figures such as Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. Within this setting, her roughened voice should prove especially effective, bringing grit into arrangements built around restraint, storytelling and open emotional space.

But where the first half allows the dust to settle, the second appears ready to send it flying again. Guitars become more forceful, rhythms hit harder and her familiar rock instincts return with renewed purpose. That movement from reflection towards eruption gives 'Beautiful Mess' the potential to feel like a complete emotional journey rather than two unrelated stylistic exercises. The country-influenced passages examine the scars up close, while the louder material asks what happens when the person carrying them steps back into the world.

Almost two decades into her career, Gin Wigmore no longer needs to prove that she can command attention. Her commercial achievements, international audience and extensive catalogue have already secured her position as one of New Zealand’s most distinctive musical exports. The more interesting challenge is whether she can continue evolving without abandoning the qualities that made her immediately recognisable.

Everything surrounding 'Beautiful Mess' suggests that she has met that challenge by moving deeper into herself rather than chasing external trends. The album’s expansive roots palette and rough-edged rock energy feel connected by personality. Both belong to the same artist because both represent genuine parts of the life she is now living.

Gin Wigmore has always sounded capable of surviving the storm. And on 'Beautiful Mess', she appears ready to dance in the wreckage and emerge from it more vivid than ever.