RIVER’s new single “I AM CANCER” is vulnerable, eerie, and beautiful in its brokenness, yet somehow feels like a quiet victory.
“I AM CANCER” opens in slow motion — all ghostly synths and weightless percussion — like waking up mid-dream, unsure if you’re still asleep. Then RIVER’s voice slides in, soft but full of ache, reading almost like a confession whispered to herself. It’s that contrast — fragility wrapped in defiance — that gives the track its pulse. I found myself caught between its heavy-hearted meaning and its strangely comforting atmosphere, like watching the rain from a warm window.
At its core, the song is a reflection on self-protection and the chaos that comes with it. RIVER writes about the infected mind that tries to love but keeps hitting the wall of its own defences. It’s a feeling many of us know too well — loving through fear, or being afraid to love at all. And yet, despite the bleakness of the metaphor, there’s a lightness to how she frames it: the track doesn’t sink; it hovers, searching for a way to breathe.
There’s something quietly cinematic about how the song unfolds. The guitars shimmer like city lights on wet pavement, while the percussion flickers in and out like heartbeats. It’s shoegaze meeting slowcore meeting a soul in recovery. For me, it’s that tension — the pull between despair and release — that makes “I AM CANCER” linger long after it ends.
About RIVER:
Born in Gothenburg and now based in Stockholm, RIVER has carved her own corner in Sweden’s alt-pop underground. Her music sits somewhere between FKA twigs, Mazzy Star, and Portishead, but her stories come straight from lived experience. Losing her father at seventeen, travelling the world, battling addiction — her songs are stitched with these moments, yet she never lets them define her. Instead, she turns them into art that’s both self-reflective and strangely liberating. Her debut EP “We’ll Be Together” was an introduction; this new chapter feels like revelation.
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