(Sub Pop)
The Stockholm musician’s debut album is a fascinating character study with improvised lyrics and a light, pretty sound that belies its emotional depth
The bewilderment of a romantic breakup, and the consolation prize of understanding yourself a little better afterwards, is rendered evocatively on the eight-song debut album by Waterbaby, a Stockholm singer-songwriter who prefers to keep her real name out of the public eye.
She improvised some of the lyrics, which creates the sense of her piecing together a new reality in real time, though that approach has its limits: the pleasant but vague opening song, Sink, threatens to do just that. But, thereafter, she locks into a run of superb material, performed on piano, acoustic guitar, drums, strings and brass, augmented with flourishes such as dulcimer and flute.
(Sub Pop)The Stockholm musician’s debut album is a fascinating character study with improvised lyrics and a light, pretty sound that belies its emotional depth
The title track has a heavy understanding at its heart – “My favourite me is still the girl I used to be in your eyes” – but the music is pretty and light, suggesting she is happily trapped in the past: a fascinating character study. Clay, a duet with her brother Ttoh, is reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell and just as beautiful. Ttoh returns for a rapped verse over a head-nodding piano riff on Beck n Call, and these two songs capture the same specific moment: when you realise you’re too in thrall to someone, but still under their spell.
Amid a full-bodied waltz, Waterbaby couches her voice in distortion on Amiss, as if she’s a melancholy wallflower at a party in full swing. But on Minnie Too, she steps out front, performing a cappella in a bright, hopeful register. “It all felt so important / Till it all went away,” she sings, half-fraught and half-free on her way to a new life.
Source: theguardian.com