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It’s very easy to be swept up by nostalgia, even limerence. Stockholm-born singer-songwriter waterbaby, felt the latter especially. As she wrote her debut album, Memory Be a Blade, she’d moved on from a past relationship, but a subsequent new one came to an end during the process. Amid this falling-out, a universal disturbance for many, something beneficial came about: a necessary transformation. Reinvention is a given after a breakup, and waterbaby indeed steers clear of tropes like being dormant and sullen after a special someone disappears. Through gentle folk, soulful R&B, and bedroom pop, waterbaby creates a healing remedy to break free from the romantic shackles of the past.
Across Memory Be a Blade are waterbaby’s queries to her past lovers and herself on whether the memories still last in either party’s mind. The thoroughly inquisitive but incessant introspection is given a leg-up by the equally if not more considered instrumentals that grace the record – a strength owed to waterbaby’s existing classical prowess. “Sink” articulates the drowning sensation of self-sacrificing, with ripply hi-hats and delicate piano stabs deepening the heartfelt impact waterbaby’s breathy voice already conveys. The title track is sublime alt-pop, adorned by strings that gently ebb and flow beneath her warm delivery: “If you need someone to remember you / Just know, I’ll remember it all.” Immediately afterwards, she offers some tragic yearning: “My favourite part is still the one only you can see / My favourite me is still the girl I used to be.” Similarly, the expansive “Amiss”, an aural tapestry sounding indebted to Saya Gray and Nilüfer Yanya, repeatedly asks vulnerable questions along one simple line: “Did I do enough?”
Waterbaby isn’t alone in tending to her emotional wounds – rapper ttoh, her own brother, pens verses on the drifting, flute-driven “Clay” and steady piano-heavy “Beck n Call”. To ruminate alongside a family member about being worthy of love makes these songs more compelling. The two-part “Minnie” travels in a full circle: Tender, acoustic strumming underpins waterbaby confronting her people-pleasing tendencies (“I don’t wanna disappoint / The ones I made believe”), then her angelic singing, first bare on a vacant backdrop, is elevated by the emerging dreamy ensemble as she voices her newfound resolve (“Now I’m just tryna get away”), the music soon concluding on the opening riffage.
Thinking about past love is normal, but when it comes to the detriment of present-day happiness, those memories can sting like itchy cuts. Memory Be a Blade is waterbaby concisely showing how that can come to be, its all-true title also a clever nod. The takeaway is that how you treat those lesions is crucial to moving on; if done productively, those bygone romantic woes will no longer penetrate the heart.
English (US) · 