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.<\/p>\n
The artwork for Memory Be a Blade. Photograph: Sub Pop<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The title track<\/a> has a heavy understanding at its heart \u2013 \u201cMy favourite me is still the girl I used to be in your eyes\u201d \u2013 but the music is pretty and light, suggesting she is happily trapped in the past: a fascinating character study. Clay<\/a>, a duet with her brother Ttoh, is reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens\u2019 album Carrie & Lowell and just as beautiful. Ttoh returns for a rapped verse over a head-nodding piano riff on Beck n Call<\/a>, and these two songs capture the same specific moment: when you realise you\u2019re too in thrall to someone, but still under their spell.<\/p>\n