Rachel Sermanni – Swallow Me
Jellygirl Records – 2 June 2021
The Scottish songstress Rachel Sermanni returns with the EP ‘Swallow Me’ – a meditative collection of songs influenced by her passage into motherhood. The songs were mostly written while she was on tour in the US and encompass a wide array of moods, from surrender to broody melancholy.
The opening title track Swallow Me was released two weeks ahead of her child’s birth as one journey begins and another ends. It’s a gentle, airy song with Sermanni singing “You can see I’ve been putting my trust, Lord/ I’ve been laying down soft side up” to the sound of soft strumming and a soaring fiddle. With the undercurrents of innocent hope, her music is reminiscent of early Laura Marling and Lisa Mitchell.
“I never knew you long enough to easy let you go,” Sermanni sings in Brighton House – a bright, catchy tune with warm guitar twiddling along to vocals overflowing with yearning. During the break, only her voice resonates above the lush kick drum. When she sings: “This is where I did not see the obvious and true/ Where I wrote sweet words and wrapped them up in lavender for you,” it’s the perfect description of a bittersweet song.
Travelled is the most brooding track on the EP where the singer mourns the life she’s leaving behind by stepping into motherhood. “I’ve travelled around, seen many a sight, held many a gaze,” Sermanni sings in the intro. With an electric guitar, the song moves away from the sweetness of the first two songs. In her press release, the singer compared the process of letting go to being a jellyfish: “Jellyfish go where the current flows. It takes courage to be passive. If you can accept everything, you can embody the jellyfish.” That’s the message that she’s passing on with the track when, in the end, her lyrics turn from reminiscence to acceptance: “I’ve travelled around but I never thought I’d stay/ seen many a sight like a river over clay”.
On the closing track Love My Love she sings “let go” with somewhat dissonant vocals over a rolling ostinato and unsettling melodies, despite this, the song seems to move steadily forward. Maybe that’s the whole point of what Sermanni is trying to convey – embrace the uncertainty of the path and surrender to the truth. Sermanni sings to the rhythm of life being lived, with songs excavated from the depths of human emotion.
Rachel Sermanni UK Headline Tour
November 19th – London, Omeara
November 20th – Brighton, Green Door Store
November 21st – Birmingham, Dead Wax
November 22nd – Bristol, Crofters Rights
November 23rd – York, National Centre for Early Music
November 24th – Oxford, The Jericho
November 25th – Lyme Regis, Marine Theatre
November 27th – Manchester, Gullivers
November 28th – Newcastle, Think Tank
December 4th – Aberdeen, Lemon Tree
December 5th – Edinburgh, Summerhall
https://www.rachelsermanni.com/
Order on Vinyl via Bandcamp: https://rachelsermanni.bandcamp.com/album/swallow-me-ep