Sabrina Claudio is Reborn into Independence with Particularly Intimate ‘Archives & Lullabies’
Evan Dale // February 15, 2022
Creative freedom never sounded so good. Sabrina Claudio, whose timeless, soothing high-notes and immersive poetics have submerged listeners in a fluttery state of R&B-induced emotionality for years, is free of her studio restraints. As such, her new album - her first as an independent artist - bleeds of something deeper and somehow even more emotionally nuanced than she - or just about anyone else in R&B’s still shining new Golden Era - has delivered in recent memory. And that includes the entirety of her at this point remarkably expansive, prolific canon which dates back to nearly a full-length project per year since 2017 debut EP, Confidently Lost. Marked by its titular track, that project still plays with an air of ghostliness by way of a breathy, shy register that manages to push through often into something more unabashedly commanding. Through the years and projects since she’s only expanded upon and perfected that central description.
With Archives & Lullabies, she takes a step back, takes it all in, and takes a masterfully imperfect many steps forward. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Not a collection of loosies and throwaways, but instead a deeply intimate, honest, and personal re-introduction through new tracks and a four-pack of acoustic cuts from this project and the last one, 2022’s Based On A Feeling. Together, the seven new songs, along with the acoustics fold into one deliberately slow-burning submersion into her world, and hers alone, where no one and nothing is safe from the Grammy-award winning songwriter’s encapsulating ability to build lyrical worlds, and bring color into them with a voice like no one else.
That has always been true of Sabrina Claudio. Her immense highs and steadily delivered lows beam balance into the frame no matter the subject matter. Wildly sensual poeticism feels digestible where it would feel chokingly tacky from an artist with lesser pipes. At the same time, an occasionally understated middle ground in her register is pedestaled high by particularly creative moments of penned provocation. Her ability to marionette the strings of intersecting skillsets is insanely acute throughout the 34-minute project.
On one end of the subject exists a track like Moan where the shape of her voice feels more instrumental than it does even vocal. Long, drawn-out syllables mirror blurry chord progressions and inspire introspection on the little moments where one-night stands felt for a fleeting second like they could have been more. On the other end, a track like Right Decision is a feat of modern R&B songwriting. It seems almost unfair how easily her lyricism comes into balance, and how we should have predicted the simplicity in her next words, like playing against artificial intelligence in a game of scrabble.
Of all the lives we've lived
Of course, we had to meet in this one
Where feelings don't exist
But maybe they would in the next one
But, damn, wish this was it
Oh, what I would give
Just to say I'm yours and then some
But I won't influence
Or try to convince
You that I'm the right decision.
It’s always been Sabrina Claudio’s knack at proving simple songwriting through the ever-irreplicable lens of crystalline vocalism that has made her a figment of the modern R&B renaissance that stretches from her Caribbean roots to London, West Africa, and all over the world. But something about her entirely unforced gliding throughout Archives & Lullabies is a step that could have only been taken under the banner of her own control from start to finish of a project’s inception, creation, and production. Her newfound freedom inspires the extra touch of intimacy and relatability. And it happens all without losing a step where most newly independent artists do: production.
Take Your Interlude, which may be the most cinematically textural R&B song ever made. It feels like it could run the opening credits to a Bond film stripped down only to its most romantic inclinations. And yet, it feels authentic to Claudio, whose reinvention here, through Archives & Lullabies is a subversive, successful step into her next many chapters, surely bringing the entirety of the R&B scene in tow.