While her debut single Little Did I Know was “mirrorball” shoegaze, Sofia Valdés opts for the modern, DIY equivalent of bedroom pop on Handful of Water: the back-of-the-beat drum pattern, a spacious cycle of simple guitar chords, her voice effortless and light, but her romantic indecision stretched thin and indecisively across two languages (“Tried so hard, pero lo que resiste, persiste [Translation: But what I resist, persists]”). The resemblance here lies more with the first 50 seconds of dani’s Ojalá than Clairo’s Pretty Girl, and besides that…not much else to say, mostly because there doesn’t have to be. Handful of Water isn’t so much about a thought as it is about a feeling: one that feels open and present and warm even in silence, on sand, or in water.
“The deeper I get into working on my music, the more I realize how much it’s connected to the music that people in my family were making a long time ago.” Valdés explains. “Now I want everyone to know that my culture is amazing, that I’m so proud of it, and that everyone else should be proud of their culture too.”