“So Quickly, Baby” doesn’t dramatize pain; it organises it. It’s the sound of trying to hold yourself together when everything inside is tilting slightly off-centre, that familiar tug between wanting to be gracious and wanting to scream.
There’s something magnetic about the way Ailbhe Reddy’s voice lands in this one—soft yet weighted, like she’s humming through the wreckage. She calls “So Quickly, Baby” the “meltdown song” of her upcoming album “KISS BIG”, and you can feel every pulse of that tension. The verses tread gently, laced with forgiveness and restraint, before the chorus cracks the composure wide open with that brutal question: “How are you already fine, and when will I be?”
On the music side of it, “So Quickly, Baby” is a gentle riot. A shimmering organ drapes the track like a thin veil of calm, while her sweet timbre keeps everything human, grounded. There’s something churchlike in its intimacy—like you’ve stumbled into someone else’s quiet confession. Then the outro sweeps in, stripping the weight off and leaving you with something oddly pop, oddly hopeful. It’s a release, the kind that reminds you that healing never arrives all at once—it trickles in, chord by chord.
Listening to “So Quickly, Baby” took me straight back to a moment I hadn’t visited in years—the strange nostalgia of losing something while still missing the version of yourself that existed in it. Reddy captures that perfectly. It’s heartbreak without melodrama, sadness without self-pity. Just the honesty of being human in the mess of it all.
About Ailbhe Reddy:
Dublin-born Ailbhe Reddy has long been one of Ireland’s most quietly powerful voices. Her previous albums, “Personal History” and “Endless Affair”, earned her a Choice Music Prize nomination and praise from The Guardian, Pitchfork, and The Times. She’s played Glastonbury, SXSW, and The Great Escape, building a reputation for songs that live somewhere between indie rock and confessional folk. With “KISS BIG”, out January 30 on Don Giovanni Records, Reddy leans deeper into that emotional precision, writing from the tender middle of heartbreak rather than its tidy conclusion.
Follow Ailbhe Reddy: