waterbaby – “Airforce blue”

The latest addition to the Sub Pop roster is waterbaby, a Stockholm-based singer making alternative pop in the overlap between a few styles. (There’s also a London-based sister duo named Waterbaby, who directed a Martha Skye Murphy video we posted a couple years ago, but this isn’t them.)

“Airforce blue,” waterbaby’s first single for Sub Pop, wouldn’t sound out of place on SZA’s genre-jumping S.O.S., but like many SZA songs it doesn’t really scan as R&B. It’s like a more lo-fi, chillwavey cousin to Post Malone’s soft-rocking “Circles,” as if filtered through Clairo’s bedroom indie-pop, with a trace of hyperpop in her Auto-Tuned voice. The result is something slightly uncanny yet tender and personal. Good song.

Below, watch the “Airforce blue” video, directed by waterbaby’s main sonic collaborator Marcus White.