Somerville alt-folk singer-songwriter Kirsten Opstad’s latest release Fear of Swimming bursts with plucky, quaint acoustic tunes. Following a few solo albums as well as a release from The Crazy Exes from Hell — the folk-punk band consisting of her and Steve Subrizi — Fear of Swimming is Opstad’s first professional full-length collection.
Opstad, like many artists, turned to Kickstarter to help collect funding for the project, and she kept friends and fans updated on the fundraising progress as well as the recording process itself on her blog. While Kickstarter allots 30 days for a project to raise its fundraising goal, Opstad reached (and exceeded) her goal of $5,000 in just twenty days. The album was recorded at Interstellar Records in early November 2011 and was released on January 10.
Magic Eye provides a sunny opening and sets the tone for the majority of the album. Opstad’s chirpy voice and quirky, acoustic, simplicity make it seem like she could easily win over fans of Kimya Dawson. The majestic, Medievally-tinted Unkeepable Oath best demonstrates Opstad’s springy, cute songwriting. Meanwhile, the bond between her and an injured bird attests to her earnest, sweet spirit. Her lyrics are tongue-in-cheek almost as often as they are heart-on-sleeve. Along with all the peachiness of the album is the sense of vulnerability she admits to, in the album title and elsewhere in the lyrics.
Most of the songs are paced similarly, sharing a bright and chipper mood, but that’s not to say that the tracks blend one into the next. And while Fear of Swimming begins with sunshine, it ends with Back to Sleep, a bittersweet lullaby in which Opstad sings, “And I can’t sleep / Knowing you’re out there without me / And I can’t move / Knowing that you’re moving on.”–Sarah Ruggiero