Rachel Sermanni - Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea (2022)

Dreams and reality often run together in strange ways; this is definitely true on Rachel Sermanni’s new EP, Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea. There’s the sense that what we see isn’t always what we should be seeing and where one looks can affect our senses in unexplained ways.

The world of dreams and the real world intertwine mysteriously as she sings about past lovers on “Aquarium Kisses,” with each verse playing out a different relationship. These odes to past lovers contain reasons why she loved these people, moments, memories, and mementoes. Finally, in the end, she’s holding hands with her present lover. “I watched you when you thought I wasn’t watching you/ I like the quiet song you gave me/ Those moments were the moments I came to know you/ They’re the moments I will hold when I let go of the days.” All this plays out against gentle guitars, creating a sense of intimacy amidst the chaos of everyday life.

Intimacy is a funny animal, especially in dreams, which creates a certain uncertainty in “Soak Me.” The opening organ softly leads into drums that centre things in a sense of reality, yet guitars sound bell-like and tend to challenge perception. As Sermanni sings, “I want to kiss you/ Can hardly resist you/ Sometimes I think that you’re gone for good”, the bass comes down heavy, and things reach a new gear with power that drives things forward before falling away as she finishes, somewhat unsure of where she is or where things stand.

“Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea” offers a vocal performance second to none. Against the simplest of guitar tracks, little more than an alternating bass and strum pattern, Sermanni lends all her vocal talents to a song that deals with some of the confusion that goes on in relationships. The perplexity plays out in the lyrics as she sings, “And I don’t know what I want you to say I don’t know what I want you to say/ And you don’t know that I want you to say what I want you to say what I want/ And I don’t know what you want me to say I don’t know what you want me to say.” That struggle to come up with the right words is one that lovers deal with constantly. How do you express feelings that have no words?

Love is fragile. It comes and goes and all we can do is try to live with the moments we have. What Rachel Sermanni proves on Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea is that in those moments all we can do is try. Nothing else matters.