Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always born from the edges where life feels sharpest. Hard Hearted Woman, her debut for Sacred Bones, arrives as a spell for anyone trying to stay wild in a world that keeps hardening. Mixing haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, Cogan builds a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital.
Written in Twin Peaks-like Nanaimo, B.C., Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations on art and politics with friends, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape visiting her godmother. She recorded with her beloved band and guests from both the country and experimental worlds with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., as well as in her studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result is a record that glows like something pulled from smoke and seawater - intimate, shimmering, and carved with wit as much as grief. It’s a swirling, jewel-toned ode to all the angels and the demons.
The album opens with “Honey,” a slow-blooming burn built on warm strings and loose, driving percussion. Cogan’s voice is steady, smoky, and consoling, addressing the “hard hearted woman” who anchors the record. Written in response to anti-trans legislation, the song radiates resilience without ever losing its tenderness. “The Smoke” rises on a hypnotic rhythm, nodding toward JJ Cale while pulling the form apart. It’s a groove for the end times with congas, shakers, cracked guitars, and ghost-weathered textures all colliding as Cogan sifts through the darker corners of our shared humanity. On “Division,” her voice echoes across a stark, reverberant landscape. The song builds like a flare in the night, a plea against the numbing cruelty that’s come to feel routine these days.
Hard Hearted Woman is a work of devotion to mystery, to community, to the strange power of making art in a fractured world. “It’s the most important part, the magic,” Cogan says. Despite its title, Hard Hearted Woman isn’t about shutting down, rather about hardness as resilience. It’s the shell we grow so our most human, breakable selves can survive. It’s a record for anyone trying to stay open, even when the world makes that feel impossible.
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