Rachel Bobbitt Navigates Rocky Waters on Debut Studio Album
Rachel Bobbitt. Photo by Ebru Yildiz.
Harnessing a voice that weaves like a leaf in the wind and wielding a pen that writes with tact, singer-songwriter Rachel Bobbitt has been a captivating force in the indie world since she started releasing music in 2018. From her independently-released 2019 album, When This Plane Goes Down, to the slew of EPs and singles that dot her discography, the Canadian artist has earned her spot as Toronto’s honey-voiced darling. Now, backed by Fantasy Records and with an arsenal of stories to tell, Bobbitt’s long-awaited debut studio album has arrived with a brilliance that makes it well worth the wait.
On Swimming Towards The Sand, Bobbitt lures listeners in with her siren song, then extends a hand to help them return to shore, navigating the turning tides of push-and-pull relationships along the way.
Ceremoniously announcing it’s beginning, the record opens with the droning, church organ-like synths of “Don’t Cry.” Right from the get-go, she establishes a handful of lyrical and thematic motifs that get threaded throughout the LP, like the use of body parts to describe niche feelings. “Laying heads on laps, fingers in hair / Soft and tired in the afternoon / Singing ribs, eye creases, laughs like flowers,” Bobbitt lilts in the third verse, for example, as if piecing together glimpses of childhood in her head in real time. Coupled with, “Darling child, don’t cry tonight / Don’t burn inside tryna make it light,” in the chorus, the result is an affirmation of a song to prime the self-discovery that ensues in the following 11 tracks.
Of course, there’s also single “Hands Hands Hands,” which displays the best of Bobbitt’s narrative songwriting while introducing a grungier side to the album, with lyrics like, “There’s a fire in the haven now / Moulding truths out of ugly nothings,” and its constant strum of dissonant electric guitar chords. Four tracks later, “Ask Again” feels like a reflective and resigned sequel to “Hands Hands Hands.” Where the latter gradually grows in anger and culminates in a full band cathartic release, the steady, crunchy guitar chords of “Ask Again” never resolve and Bobbitt’s gentle vocal melody never crests. “Ask Again” also has some of the most beautifully-crafted lyrics on the record, like, “I wish you’d have found me when I spoke so sincerely / When my lips moved with feeling / Ask again, ask again.”
Watch the music video for “Remember?” on YouTube.
The album also sees Bobbitt tastefully experimenting with a more tech-heavy sound at times. Singles “Hush” and “Furthest Limb” — the latter a track that’s stuck with me since its April release — use wall-of-sound reverb on top of gang vocals to create a satisfying sonic release. “Remember?” features droning, tension-building synths and in “Life By The Marsh,” there’s even a crackly effect on solely her breaths, making it sound as if she’s trying to sing while drowning.
With a title like Swimming Towards The Sand, there’s of course no shortage of aquatic imagery throughout the record. Singing of an underwater “dull light” in “I Want It All,” Bobbitt posits, “Well, I’d live there if I could / But the tide’s going out now and it does no good / To be midway understood.” Over arpeggiating synth lines reminiscent of a gently rolling sea, the tide acts as a fitting metaphor for that something that’s just out of reach. She also uses the ocean as a symbol for “unconditional love,” like in lead single “Sweetest Heart.”
But Bobbitt puts the theme of internal struggle and growth best in the closing track, “Nothing”: “Maybe it’s the act of waking / Maybe it’s a wave finally breaking.” Paralleling the lyrics, the song starts with a simple, oscillating bass line and lullaby-like keyboard melody until a full band release carries the power ballad through the outro — a surging wave finally making its way to the sand. Calmer, pulsing synth reverberations close the album, like light sparkling over a body of water after a storm.
While it’s easy to milk the oceanic metaphors in a review of Swimming Towards The Sand, it’s only because Bobbitt did the hard work of building an elegantly rich, symbolic and cohesive musical world for me.