Waterbaby: Memory Be a Blade Review – Great Post-Breakup Singer-Songwriter Tracks | Pop and rock

TThe bewilderment of a romantic breakup, and the consolation prize of understanding yourself a little better afterwards, are presented evocatively on the eight-song debut album by Waterbaby, a singer-songwriter from Stockholm who prefers to keep her real name out of the public eye.

She improvised some of the lyrics, creating the sense that she was stitching together a new reality in real time, though this approach has its limits: the gentle but mysterious opening song, Sink, threatens to do just that. But, then, she commits to a series of exquisite material, played on piano, acoustic guitar, drums, strings and brass, augmented by such flourishes as dulcimer and flute.

The title track has great understanding at its core – “My favorite me is still the girl I used to be in your eyes” – but the music is beautiful and light, suggesting that she is happily trapped in the past: a fascinating character study. Clay, a duet with her brother Tutu, is reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell and is equally beautiful. Ttoh returns for a rap verse over a head-nodding piano riff on Beck n Call, and these two songs capture the same precise moment: when you realize you’re so enslaved to someone, but still under their spell.

In the middle of a full-on waltz, Waterbaby distorts her voice over Amiss, as if she were a sad sunflower at a party in full swing. But on Mini Two, she steps forward, performing a cappella on a bright, hopeful record. “I felt so important / Till it was all over,” she sings, half charged and half free on her way to a new life.