Amanda Bergman – embraced for a second as we die
Even at its most heartbreaking, embraced for a second as we die reminds us to inhale life, and that clarity and connection, however brief, can still be found
Amanda Bergman has long been one of Sweden’s most quietly powerful singer-songwriters. Her best work to date, Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever, was only just released in 2024, making it a fantastic surprise to receive embraced for a second as we die so soon afterwards.
Where Bergman previously folded her vulnerabilities into folksy arrangements, here she leans into a soft-rock warmth. Songs like grasp feature unashamedly 80s arrangements, big open road melodies and hooks that feel almost Californian, somewhere between the glow of Dylan’s Infidels and the clean, sun-soaked sound of HAIM.
These songs exist in the space between despair and consolation. The grief-stricken never known like that walks that tightrope: 'Born in the waves and we are not easy / I had never loved like that'. The following track, is this how you said you’d be gone, soars and offers catharsis, Bergman singing: 'So pick up again, it’s so hard to win / For a second of love, I’m giving everything'.
sick of time feels like the record’s emotional core, a tender meditation on parenthood and the pain of the passage of time. Even at its most heartbreaking, embraced for a second as we die reminds us to inhale life and that clarity and connection, however brief, can still be found.
Listen to: grasp, is this how you said you'd be gone, never known