After no small amount of indie hype, Before We Forgot How To Dream is the debut album from 19-year-old, Derry-born, singer-songwriter Bridie Monds-Watson. Active on the local live circuit from the age of 14, and out as a lesbian soon afterwards, she took the moniker SOAK as a portmanteau of ‘soul’ and ‘folk’ (as you would, too, if your name was Bridie!). However, while she undoubtedly has soul, and largely favours an acoustic guitar sound, few if any of the 14 tracks featured on this 42-minute long album fit neatly into either musical category.
Which isn’t really all that important: most ‘teenagers’ don’t fit neatly into categories. What does matter is that SOAK’s precocious talent is indisputable; what’s more, she is evidently mature for her relatively tender years. That said, she is still very much a fledgling artist, in the process of finding her voice. Obviously aware of this, she opens this polished collection – ably and airily produced by Villagers’ Tommy McLaughlin – with a short slice of Eno-esque ambience, looping fuzzy noises building to a burst of static. It’s title? ‘My Brain’. Ha, ha!
Throughout this coming-of-age album, SOAK plays her shyness and anxieties to her advantage, revelling in her own uncertainties as she stands on potential’s vast shore. That she’s still a teenager is evident from the texty spelling of some song titles (‘Blud’, ‘Shuvels’). Second track ‘B a noBody’ serves as a mission statement of sorts as she croons in a husky Derry accent, “The teenage heart is an unguided dart/ We’re trying hard to make something of what we are.” Its gloriously anthemic chorus is designed to appeal to shy and uncertain adolescents everywhere: “We’ll never amount to anything/ Come on, come on/ Be just like me/ Be a nobody.” If she’s going to have a hit single, this is it...
SOAK isn’t a nobody, of course, but she’s not being disingenuous here either. There’s a bedroom feel to many of these songs – undoubtedly because that’s where many of them were written. Most of the material from her two previous EPs is featured. Her vocal delivery doesn’t vary much, but for the most part the lazily meandering style suits, especially on more ghostly ambient tracks such as ‘Oh Brother’. Behind her voice and acoustic guitar, piano, strings, drums and occasional handclaps drive the music along.
While she can do fragile, she doesn’t quite pull off out and out anguish. But she does have a talent for making the everyday sound otherworldly. Written about her parents’ divorce, ‘Blud’ opens with a strummed acoustic guitar and the gentle lines, “You’ve got a problem/ I cannot fix it/ Hear the anger through the ceiling/ I cannot fix it.” Of course no matter how commonplace divorce might be nowadays, it’s still traumatic for those involved. Given the subject matter, the chorus is heartbreaking: “You’re in my blood/ I’m in your blood.”
The standout track is ‘Sea Creatures’ – a love song about outsiders which uses samples of waves, an almost lounge-like beat and her most radio-friendly vocals: “I don’t get this town/ neither do you/ We should run away/ Just me and you/ Cause I don’t get the people here/ They’re curious/ they don’t really care.” ‘Reckless Behaviour’ directly addresses teenage angst (“And I won’t waste my youth this year/ So don’t spend your night in tears”)
There’s darkness too. ‘24 Windowed House’ hints at some kind of abuse that can’t be revealed. Whatever the institution is, there’s badness happening behind those windows. “I’ll bring her heaven even if I’m stuck in hell/ It’s a story I cannot bear to tell.”
Other critics have compared SOAK to Laura Marling, but I am reminded of early Palace Brothers – especially on the excellent album closer ‘Blind’.
This is a very powerful debut from a highly promising young Irish artist. It’s probably far too idiosyncratic and introspective to be a mainstream global hit in the vein of Taylor Swift, but SOAK’s first offering certainly whets – or wets – the appetite for more. Hopefully she’ll go on to become one of the greats.