Cerulean Salt

Cerulean Salt is the second studio album by American indie musician Waxahatchee, released on March 5, 2013, on Don Giovanni Records. Co-produced by Swearin' members, Kyle Gilbride and Keith Spencer, the album was recorded in primary recording artist Katie Crutchfield's basement.[1]

Cerulean Salt
Studio album by
Waxahatchee
ReleasedMarch 5, 2013 (2013-03-05)
RecordedSeptember–November 2012 in West Philadelphia
GenreIndie rock, indie folk
Length32:30
LabelDon Giovanni Records
ProducerKyle Gilbride, Keith Spencer, Katie Crutchfield and Jacob
Waxahatchee chronology
American Weekend
(2012)		 Cerulean Salt
(2013)		 Ivy Tripp
(2015)

The album was recognized as one of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far, a list published by Pitchfork Media in August 2014.[2]

Background and recording

Following the release of Waxahatchee's debut album, American Weekend (2012), Katie Crutchfield toured extensively as a duo, with her friend Katherine: "It was just the two of us, which was also kind of hard staying away from pretty much everybody that I know for that long. It was really hard, then I came home and kind of worked on writing and flushing out some of the new songs and then I went out on tour again with Swearin' for the same amount of time, for two months, so that was crazy."[3]

In April 2012, Crutchfield began working on new material with boyfriend and Swearin' band member Keith Spencer: "I went to Alabama with my boyfriend and he kinda' played drums with me, and we sort of fleshed out everything and decided what needed drums, what didn’t need drums, and reworked a lot of the songs I had."[3] Five months later, Crutchfield and Spencer began recording Cerulean Salt, alongside Swearin' members Kyle Gilbride and Allison Crutchfield: "We recorded it here at my house with Kyle [Gilbride]. And Keith and Kyle are both in Swearin,’ which is my sister's band, and they sort of, we all kind of, still like Allison is a part of my life and her entire band is an everyday part of my life, so it still felt very comfortable. We recorded it here in my basement and Kyle and Allison and Keith and another roommate of ours Sam [Cook-Parrott] all played on it."[3]

Crutchfield praised the collaborative recording sessions, noting: "I feel like I have really talented friends and wanted to bounce ideas off them. Like, two heads are better than one, four are better than two, and maybe if we all got together on this they could present ideas to me that I had never thought of. That was the sort of process on this record that, honestly, is completely different than American Weekend in every possible way."[3]

Writing and composition

Songwriter and primary recording artist Katie Crutchfield wrote Cerulean Salt over the course of a year, stating: "For me, I’ve always been, like, I can just spit out a bunch of songs really quickly. But this was a much slower, more vigilant, meticulous process."[3]

The album's lyrical content is primarily concerned with songwriter and recording artist Katie Crutchfield's views on adulthood: "A lot of it is about realizing that your childhood is over, that your innocence is gone. When you're a kid, you're always happy, and everything's good. And then you realize, 'That's never gonna be how I am again.' [...] It's not sad as much as it is these weird existential realizations, like, 'This is life, nothing matters.'"[1]

Reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.5/10[4]
Metacritic79/100[5]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
The Guardian[7]
The Irish Times[8]
Mojo[9]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)A−[10]
NME8/10[11]
Pitchfork8.4/10[12]
Q[13]
Rolling Stone[14]
Spin8/10[15]

Pitchfork's Lindsay Zoladz applauded Salt as "the work of a songwriter skilled enough to make introspection not self-centered, but generous." She wrote that the album showed Katie Crutchfield as "a new songwriting voice to reckon with", aligning its "blazingly honest [and] hyper-personal quality" with musicians Cat Power, Elliott Smith, and Liz Phair. It was awarded the site's "Best New Music" accolade.[12] Jim Carroll for The Irish Times called Crutchfield's songwriting "confident, audacious, and natural" and singled out several songs as "lyrically strong and honest, and perfectly pitched."[8]

The album reached #1 on the Official Record Store Chart for the week of July 13, 2013.[16] The A.V. Club ranked the record at a high #7 on their year end list. The album was voted #36 on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2013 list. Pitchfork ranked the album #22 on their year end list. Spin also ranked the album highly, placing it at #20 on their top album list.[17]

Legacy

Cerulean Salt was included on several decade-end lists. It placed #61 on Rolling Stone's list, with J. Bernstein writing that it solidified Katie Crutchfield as "one of her generation's foremost chroniclers of interior turmoil." They also dubbed it "a lasting document" of Philadelphia's "subdued" take on indie rock music during the 2010s.[18] Ranking it #107 on their list, BrooklynVegan dubbed the album "a touchstone" for the fusion of emo, folk, indie rock, and punk styles occurring that decade.[19]

Accolades
Critical rankings for Cerulean Salt
Publication Country Type List Year Rank Ref.
BrooklynVegan United States Decade-end 100 Best Punk & Emo Albums of the 2010s 2019 18 [20]
141 Best Albums of the 2010s 107 [19]
Paste The 50 Best Indie Rock Albums of the 2010s 28 [21]
Rolling Stone The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s 61 [18]
Stereogum The 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s 47 [22]
Paste All-time The 100 Best Indie Folk Albums of All Time 2020 10 [23]

Track listing
  1. "Hollow Bedroom" – 1:52
  2. "Dixie Cups and Jars" – 3:36
  3. "Lips and Limbs" – 2:37
  4. "Blue Pt. II" – 2:19
  5. "Brother Bryan" – 2:36
  6. "Coast to Coast" – 1:46
  7. "Tangled Envisioning" – 2:27
  8. "Misery Over Dispute" – 1:45
  9. "Lively" – 2:32
  10. "Waiting" – 1:41
  11. "Swan Dive" – 3:14
  12. "Peace and Quiet" – 2:37
  13. "You're Damaged" – 3:33

Personnel

Musicians
  • Katie Crutchfield - vocals, various instruments
  • Keith Spencer - drums (3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12), bass guitar (2, 5 and 7), guitar (2)
  • Kyle Gilbride - bass guitar (3, 6 and 10), guitar (3), synth (12), backing vocals (9)
  • Allison Crutchfield - drums (2), vocals (4)
  • Sam Cook-Parrott - bass guitar (12), backing vocals (12)

Recording personnel

Artwork
  • Ryan Russell - art direction, layout and photography
  • Katie Crutchfield - art direction

References
  1. Pelly, Jenn (24 January 2013). "Rising: Waxahatchee". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  2. "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010-2014) - Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  3. Rachel, T. Cole (February 2013). "Q&A: Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield On Twin Dynamics, P.S. Eliot, And New LP Cerulean Salt". stereogum.com. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  4. "Cerulean Salt by Waxahatchee reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  5. "Reviews for Cerulean Salt by Waxahatchee". Metacritic. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  6. Thomas, Fred. "Cerulean Salt – Waxahatchee". AllMusic. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  7. Costa, Maddy (June 27, 2013). "Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt – review". The Guardian. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  8. Carroll, Jim (July 5, 2013). "Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt". The Irish Times. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  9. "Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt". Mojo (237): 93. August 2013.
  10. Christgau, Robert (March 26, 2013). "Kate Nash/Waxahatchee". MSN Music. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  11. Hewitt, Ben (July 2, 2013). "Waxahatchee – 'Cerulean Salt'". NME. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  12. Zoladz, Lindsay (March 7, 2013). "Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  13. "Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt". Q (325): 107. August 2013.
  14. Sheffield, Rob (March 27, 2013). "Cerulean Salt". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  15. Powell, Mike (March 6, 2013). "Waxahatchee, 'Cerulean Salt' (Don Giovanni)". Retrieved March 11, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. "2013 Top 40 Official Record Store Albums Archive". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  17. "50 Best Albums of 2013". Rolling Stone. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  18. "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s". Rolling Stone. 3 December 2019. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  19. BrooklynVegan Staff (December 31, 2019). "141 Best Albums of the 2010s". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  20. Sacher, Andrew (December 18, 2019). "100 Best Punk & Emo Albums of the 2010s". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  21. "The 50 Best Indie Rock Albums of the 2010s". Paste. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  22. Stereogum (November 4, 2019). "The 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s". Stereogum. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  23. Paste Music Staff (May 20, 2020). "The 100 Best Indie Folk Albums of All Time". Paste. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
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