Cerulean Salt

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."

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." 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."

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."

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."

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.'"

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

Reception

The album reached #1 on the Official Record Store Chart for the week of July 13, 2013. 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 Media ranked the album #22 on their year end list. Spin Magazine also ranked the album highly, placing it at #20 on their top album list.

Musicians

Recording personnel

Artwork