“I’m soft like an apricot
My mind is my enemy
And I bruise easily”
I just had the best birthday ever. I ate a bagel with cream cheese and lox stacked to heaven. I rode a ferry and saw a cute turtle swimming in a pond. I witnessed a wild, haunting dance performance. And, on top of everything, I listened to Marika Christine’s debut album Soft Like an Apricot. Gentle, breezy, poetic, the new work arrives like an announcement of summertime (which also happens to be stone fruit season). But it’s not all good times and sweet juice, as Christine reminds us on “Music and Heart” with the chorus “it’s hard to be young in San Francisco.” Tender voice-led folk rock arrangements, there may not be anything supremely innovative here, but maybe that’s the point. There’s nothing supremely innovative about a turtle gliding underwater through a pond, but is there anything more charming?
Get tickets to celebrate the album release with Marika Christine, Mild Universe, Katsy Pline, and Wanda What this Thursday, June 1 at Rickshaw Stop. The album is out now on Seattle’s Ghost Mountain Records.