SUSANNA HOFFS - The List

Rising to prominence in the 1980s as co-founder and frontwoman of Bangles, co-writing, among other things, many of the band's hits, but also for having joined the unforgettable Dave Roback in composing songs like "I'll Keep It With Mine" and "I'll Be Your Mirror", featured on the self-titled debut album by Rainy Day in 1984, a prelude to bands such as Rain Parade, Opal and Mazzy Star, California's Susanna Hoffs went on to gradually build a solo career through which to channel her gifts as a songwriter, collaborating over the years with Jon Brion, Mick Fleetwood, John Entwistle, Jim Keltner, Mark Linkous and David Lowery.

The daughter of a psychoanalyst and an artist, Hoffs has always stood out in the folk-pop circles of the West Coast for her strong inclination to gather stories and inspirations from her own circle of friends, often inviting them into her living room to turn their most exciting anecdotes into songs.
It's an approach to collective songwriting that's still very much alive, forming much of the backbone behind the genesis of her new album, “The List”, that is, "a joyful and deeply human reflection on what it means to be alive and in love, and on looking with gratitude and emotional intensity at the stories that have shaped my life", to quote her own words.  

Born, in fact, out of a long series of private gatherings that saw musicians such as Dan Wilson, Edie Brickell and producer Cj Camerieri, among others, pass through the Hoffs household, these twelve songs are first and foremost portraits of life, elevated by an elegant soft-pop formula free of any unnecessary complications, with piano, guitar and drums always providing pleasant support to Susanna's thin, scratchy voice. Starting with "Casablanca", the first single taken from "The List", written together with Wilson and Camerieri. A brisk, nostalgic folk ballad about "what could have been", inspired by a "surreal encounter" in New Orleans in 1988 with Bob Weir, walking side by side while an impromptu parade of Grateful Dead fans filled the streets.

Between a folk gallop and a pop lullaby, “The List” is one of those pleasant records best left to flow without too much restlessness. The imperative here is to let yourself be lulled by the immediate melodies, which at times recall the best of Juice Newton ("Learn A Lesson Twice"), and elsewhere a slowed-down Joan Osborne of "One Of Us" ("Time").
Ballads like "The Island", meanwhile, sound as if borrowed from a Judee Sill record, while others like "Good Luk" seem lifted from a Broadway jazz-soul operetta. And even on the closing tracks, when it's time to sing yet another reflection on time's relentless passing, Susanna Hoffs wins us over with her harmonic disenchantment, caught between rediscovered hopes and broken wings that still somehow manage to fly ("What Are Wings For").

"The List" isn't an album made to surprise, but one best listened to from the couch, gazing out the window, gently keeping company with the memory of better years.

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05/10/2026