This Is Our Jam Premieres: Soley, “I’ll Drown”

Sóley Stefánsdóttir’s music has an internal quietude that feels especially intimate. Listening to “I’ll Drown,” you get the sense that you've happened upon a private performance seen through a keyhole in a dusky hallway. A former member the Icelandic group Seabear, Sóley’s solo effort is less baroque than anything from that band, but entirely more personal—a bit like an Icelandic Lykke Li. As with other musicians from that country (Björk, Múm, Sigur Rós), the natural world bleeds into Sóley’s music both sonically and lyrically; it's as if Iceland imbues its artists with its own fantastical biological subtext. With Sóley, this is seen in the ever-recurring water metaphors she plays with, from the name of her album We Sink, to the chorus: "I drown when I see you." As Sóley's voice swells and echoes underneath the clikity-clak beat, Sóley submerges us in her own psyche.