Confusion. Repetition. Musical hypnosis and drum patterns. Hope. Cities underwater. Kindness. The texture of a community. Care. For the last couple years this is some of what’s occupied Nick Hakim. The New York-based musician works out of a pleasantly cluttered loft studio in Ridgewood, and like so much of the city, it’s a neighborhood of deep history that’s in flux; if you spend even a little time there you might start to wonder about what the future holds, and what it means to be someone’s neighbor. Hakim’s been wondering about it, and his new album WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD is something like a response.

WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD is a question Hakim has asked himself since he was young and struggling in school, when he was prescribed medication in an attempt to correct his wayward attention. It’s a question he still wonders about, and if the album sounds messy, it’s because there are no easy answers to its query. “I’m still trying to figure out what the record is about,” he says. One thing’s for certain though-it is a reflection of what’s happening in his head as he sorts through his life and the tumult around the globe that can’t help but seep in. WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD articulates a sense of confusion alongside a desire for hope and clarity. Another bravura epic, “Bouncing” describes sleepless nights spent looking for some calm. “It’s such a dark climate these days,” Hakim says, “with what’s going on politically and how immigrants are being treated here in the US. The travel ban, the camps.”