Bathe Alone

No one gets married thinking it will end in divorce. The act changes everything. For the first time, Atlanta dream-pop luminary and multi-instrumentalist Bailey Crone, aka Bathe Alone, unpacks her own marriage story on the bittersweet and remarkable new album I Don’t Do Humidity, released June 7, 2024.

Like last year’s Fall With The Lights Down, I Don’t Do Humidity features a kaleidoscopic array of swirling synths, moody minor-key melodies, lush vocal layers, and hazy, crystalline production, courtesy of Crone’s close friend and collaborator Damon Moon and his studio, Standard Electric Recorders Co. As Crone poured her divorce experience into what would become the most raw, experimental, and personal project of her career, she discovered a newfound confidence in her vocal abilities, pushing herself to new, more evocative places as a songwriter.

While I Don’t Do Humidity processes the lead-up and fallout of Crone’s 2021 split, the title refers to the evolution of a friendship. Crone found a useful metaphor in an oppressive weather pattern. "When you're in humidity, you feel sticky and weighed down. Everything feels heavier in the atmosphere. It just made sense to me—to compare them to water in a negative way." Crone brilliantly succeeds in writing an album that is unflinching in its confessions as it is beautiful in its striking dream-pop compositions. It is bound to resonate with anyone who has experienced daunting betrayal and found a way to rebuild.