Introducing: Sophia Knapp

Name: Sophia Knapp
From: Brooklyn, New York
Story: Cliffie Swan leader Lights up solo-style
Sound: '70s singer-songwriter style

"Leaving people behind is never easy to do," carols Sophia Knapp. "Still you're moving along." The longtime leader of Brooklyn band Cliffie Swan (who, for their first two LPs, were known as Lights, pre-name-change) may not be leaving her band entirely behind, but her debut solo album sure finds her moving along.

Into the Waves, Knapp's first record under her own name, comes out February 28 on Drag City. It features a couple duets with beau Bill Callahan, and carries with it a warm, storytelling quality that never quite shone amidst Cliffie Swan's snarling psychedelic rock.

Here, there's chiming pianos, funky bass, analogue organs, dangling guitar lines, and washed-out disco strings. The tone of the whole lands somewhere between the Laurel Canyon sound and Fleetwood Mac's coked-out excesses. Things are routinely slow and sad, which gives Knapp's glorious voice a chance to shine, and her casual, conversational lyrics are filled with all kinds of sweet, suggestive details.

Cliffie Swan have been, in their life, a band existing outside of the blogosphere's buzz, and it's entirely possible Into the Waves eludes hyping on its release. But, to these ears, it's clearly one of the best albums of 2012 thus far.

• Listen: Sophia Knapp, "Close to Me"
• Visit: Sophia Knapp website

Let Your Long Hair Down:
February 23: Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
February 29: New York, NY - Sway

Photo © Bek Anderson