With their debut LP, 2020’s Home for Now, London-based Babeheaven mined 80s R&B and the more spacey side of 90s triphop. Featuring Nancy Andersen’s sultry vocals and Jamie Travis’ psychedelically inflected atmospherics, the album often brought to mind a bedroom pop/DIY version of Dummy-era Portishead fronted by Sade circa Diamond Life.
In terms of instrumentation and production, the pair’s new project, Sink Into Me, is driven by a more singular vision. Whereas Home for Now spotlighted a band seeking identity and embracing the adventurousness that often accompanies that pursuit, Sink Into Me shows Babeheaven veering more exclusively dreampop than triphop, chamber than bedroom, and in terms of the Sade comparison, more Promise or Stronger than Pride than Diamond Life.
“French One” establishes the duo’s proclivity for a slicker brand, Andersen’s fluid voice unfolding in a chorus-dabbed soundscape. An instrumental break taps into a late-70s/early 80s easy-listening vibe (Rupert Holmes’ “Him” comes to mind). “The Hours” features a catchy melody placed in a lackadaisically pop structure – more lounge than psychedelia, more karaoke than open-mic – Andersen effortlessly navigating shifts in volume and tone.
With “Holding On”, the duo refreshingly graze their triphop loyalties, Andersen’s crystalline vocal wrapped in a synth-y gloss that recalls the more gossamer side of Jay Som circa Everybody Works or the less glitchy aspects of Black Belt Eagle Scout’s At the Party with My Brown Friends. With “Don’t Wake Me,” the duo embrace a more languorous tempo, Travis sprinkling the mix with bright and ephemeral accents a la recent Helado Negro.
“Make Me Wanna” is the album’s most enterprising and eclectically sourced track. Travis forges an edgier atmosphere that points to the impact of late-90s Massive Attack, though Andersen’s vocal keeps the piece grounded in smooth R&B/dream-vibe territory. Navy Blue contributes a succinct but memorable guest-feature, touching on themes of self-doubt, heartbreak, and frustrated ambition, his agreeable delivery conjuring a 90s jazz-rap feel.
“Lean into me / I’ll take your weight,” Andersen seductively sings on the title song. Travis’s guitar part shimmers, echoey notes wrapped around Andersen’s voice. With closer “Open Your Eyes”, Andersen expresses exhilaration over “days getting longer”, though she feels disconnected from her friends and wants to sleep more (seasonal affective disorder?). Andersen’s voice is otherworldly, ethereal, the soundscape devoid of percussion and mostly ambient until midway, at which point the tune settles into a hazy yet buoyant lull and extended fade.
Sink into Me is possibly superior song-wise to Home for Now and at least equally cogent in terms of vocal performances. Going forward, however, Babeheaven might consider combining the matured skills of their latest work with the less self-conscious and more rangy aesthetic inherent to Home for Now. At any rate, Babeheaven are a young act with strong instincts, excellent tastes, and notable talent; perhaps with their next release, they’ll actualize their full potential.
