"Salt Water": Raveena
Production: Everett Orr
Album: Lucid
Raveena’s songs are often praised for their dreamy, hypnotic quality and ‘Salt Water’ is no exception. The track begins almost cinematically with the full and dramatic sound of string instruments, as if preparing the listener for the gravity of the lyrics to come. In them, Raveena explores the emotional and physical aftermath of being sexually assaulted with heart-breaking honesty and care. She sings, with a voice that is enchantingly soft, ‘A year lost in an hour. / I cry into my limbs. / I froze in a hot shower. / I scrub away his sins’, conveying delicately both the initial and longer-term effects of her experience. In spite of these lyrics, the track feels unexpectedly cheerful as a result of the bright melody and piano playing throughout.
This expression of such a dark experience through a song that still feels hopeful reflects Raveena’s dedication to making music that, as she remarks in interview, can ‘be a space of healing for people’, and is exactly what makes this track so powerful and feel like a privilege to listen to.