Waterbaby: Memory Be a Blade review – stellar singer-songwriter pieces post-breakup life back together

(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. 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 return