Robyn Sherwell
Today, June 18th singer and songwriter Robyn Sherwell releases her new studio album ‘Unfold’
The past few years have certainly brought change in Robyn Sherwell’s life, since the release of her critically acclaimed full-length debut album, produced by Bat For Lashes collaborator David Kosten. She experienced a huge and incredible transition in becoming a mother, after the loss of a pregnancy. From deep emotional vulnerability also came new resilience, and in gradually rediscovering her strength and her independence, both in life and as an artist, she felt inspired to make music once again.
With this new-found strength, Robyn returned to her home studio in London, and brought in an old friend on board to produce alongside her – Jonas Jalhay – whose credits include artists such as DJ Khaled, Rag’n’Bone Man and James Blake – andwho had co-produced ‘Landslide’, her spellbinding cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic, from her debut album. Her comeback EP ‘Where Do We Go From Here’, released last December, signalled the confident return of an artist who’s experienced a lot, and is never afraid to express her emotions through beautifully bruised but enveloping melodic electro soul songs.
Talking about the album’s writing process, Robyn explains; “to be writing at home and self-producing is so empowering. It feels like a return to when I was first exploring music and my artistry, just writing heartfelt songs and making demos in my bedroom, with no one else involved.”
Recorded within her close-knit circle, some songs showcase first-take vocals, lending an additional sensitive quality to already intimate songs. As ever, the tracks are led first and foremost by her mellifluous vocals: at once exposed and powerful, delicate and bold, and always bursting with effortless sweetness and heartfelt expression. Her lyrics paint vivid stories, so personal but so relatable, that it is hard to not feel connected to the emotion conveyed.
Opening track and lead single ‘To Give Up’ is a pulsating slice of electronic alt-pop. Lyrically empowering, Robyn reflects on the challenge of leaving a dysfunctional situation. In ‘Bare Minimum’ – a song co-written with Robyn’s friend and fellow female artist Litening – mid-tempo, Massive Attack-style drums repeat on loop, depicting the monotony of a relationship that seems to have lost its way, whilst the lyrics implore for “something more than this, bare minimum”.
Originally released as part of last year’s ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ EP, ‘Two Weeks’ is undoubtedly the most heart-wrenchingly personal track on the record. Set to a compelling drum-loop pulse created from an actual sonogram heartbeat, the affecting song tells Robyn’s own personal story about the loss that affects one in four pregnant women and the taboo surrounding it, which becomes an unspoken burden for many who experience it.
Elsewhere, lush second single ‘A Kiss’, “speaks to the risk of doing something that can’t be undone, something that could change everything, and the floating exhilaration, fear, and anticipation of that moment,” explains Robyn. Brooding ballad ‘Problems’ calls time on a relationship that has become too oppressive. With a sense of steadfast resilience that pervades the whole record, the lyrics offer up the album title itself: “The tighter you hold, the brighter the goal, the fire is out, and you’ll watch me unfold. I’m on my way, land-bound again, on my own.”
In the closing track ‘Leaving’ Robyn leans further into the theme of drawing on inner-strength, building new beginnings after disappointment, even if it means moving country in order to start again: “Funny how now we’re over, there’s nothing here I want”. And in stunning thematic contrast, ‘Lifting Me Up’ is a rolling, uplifting pop cut which embraces the joy of discovering a new love. As her hopeful vocals float brightly over precise drums, Robyn’s lyrics track the unexpected and welcome transformation brought by the arrival of a new relationship.
Robyn Sherwell is a name that has been on the lips of tastemakers since her debut single ‘Love Somebody’ became a firm favourite of Lauren Laverne’s on BBC Radio 6 and signalled the arrival of a new heart-on-sleeve female singer-songwriter. Follow up single ‘Islander’, a dedication to her childhood home of Guernsey, quickly secured support from Huw Stephens and BBC Introducing, catapulting Sherwell onto the latter’s stage at Glastonbury in June 2015. That same summer, her cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ was chosen as the soundtrack to the trailer for the film ‘Suffragette’. This led to Lauren Laverne making the track her 6Music Recommends Track Of The Week, and Jo Whiley playing it twice in one show on her BBC Radio 2 show. In 2021, the emotive power of her rendition is still turning heads: having caught the attention of Airbnb, the song was placed within the film for their latest major global advertising campaign. While her original songs ‘Low’ and ‘Love Somebody’ have been featured on the soundtrack of popular TV shows including Good Trouble and Oprah Winfrey’s Queen Sugar.
2016 saw the release of her full-length debut album, produced by Bat For Lashes collaborator David Kosten, drawing rapturous reviews; The Guardian hailed Robyn “a significant new voice”. She became a PRS Momentum funded artist and her first UK headline tour culminated in a sold-out London show. Robyn’s music has amassed over 20 million cumulative streams, establishing her as a fresh standout voice in the realm of heartfelt confessional electro-pop. The release of Unfoldsignals a new moment from a compelling artist; a mature leap forward from her debut album, solidifying previous accolades, with the promise of many more to come.
‘Unfold’ tracklisting
1. To Give Up
2. Bare Minimum
3. One Thing
4. Where Do We Go From Here
5. Two Weeks
6. A Kiss
7. Problems
8. Lifting Me Up
9. Sand In My Shoes
10. Leaving
