‘Puhidua’ wins Album of the Year at the 2020 NTMA

Album of the Year

Quite literally every entry in this year's album category was worthy of listening, but Natalie Haskins' Puhidua was truly outstanding. If you follow Haskins online, you might recall posts lamenting the time it's taken to finish the album and musing whether it was worth all the time and trouble.

"I worked on it for four years," she said. "I originally tried crowd-funding, but I didn't raise enough money so I decided to do it on my own. It has 16 songs, and that's a lot, and the packaging I wanted was very expensive. I wanted it to look and sound a certain way. It was my first album and contained my first 10 years of songwriting."

It's hard to believe Puhidua was Haskins' debut full-length record, and its Americana sound is full of gorgeous melodies and thoughtful lyrics. Ironically, since its release she's changed musical directions.

"If I do another album, I'd like to do R&B," she said. "I listen to a lot of soul, and I might do an album of ballads."

As for Puhidua, Haskins said, "I feel relieved to have finally finished it, and I'm proud of it. It's exactly how I wanted it to be. It's nice to win, but I don't care about competition, to be honest. This is really for all the people who worked with me and played on the album, and for Kip Stork of Avalon Digital Recording Studio, who engineered, mixed, and mastered it."

Glen Starkey

New Times

November 12, 2020