It takes a special kind of debut to feel like both an introduction and a reckoning. With Sink Now, Swim Later, 19-year-old London artist Sienna Spiro doesn’t gently wade into the music world—she dives in headfirst, dragging every jagged emotion with her. These songs don’t ask for your attention—they demand it, fusing old soul wisdom with the visceral immediacy of Gen Z’s most urgent voices. The result is a record that feels lived-in, bruised, and utterly undeniable.
The EP’s title alone suggests resilience forged under pressure, and that ethos bleeds into every second of the project. These are songs born in the wreckage of adolescence—when love, identity, and the body all feel like separate battlegrounds. Sienna isn’t interested in offering easy answers. She’s too honest for that. Instead, what she delivers is an emotional excavation set to melodies that ache and soar in equal measure.
Her breakout track “Origami,” already crowned a Rolling Stone “Song You Need to Know,” is an immediate standout. It’s the kind of song that folds in on itself, delicately layered with vulnerability but sharp at the edges. Spiro’s voice, described by Dazed as “huge enough to rival all the pop greats,” lives up to the hype—it bends and breaks with emotion, then lifts again with an almost defiant clarity.
Then there’s “Back to Blonde,” a bruised ballad that carries both ferocity and fragility in its DNA. It’s no surprise Pigeons & Planes picked it up—this is the sound of someone shedding skin, reclaiming themselves line by line. Meanwhile, “Maybe.” has exploded across TikTok and Spotify alike, and yet, it feels deeply personal, never pandering to virality despite its 515 million views. That’s Spiro’s quiet genius: her ability to make even the most intimate confessions feel anthemic.
Even her earliest release, “Need Me,” which caught the attention of powerhouses like SZA, FINNEAS, and Mark Ronson, is a masterclass in emotional minimalism. The instrumentation leaves just enough space for her lyrics to land like punches—and land they do.
But Sink Now, Swim Later isn’t just about heartbreak. It’s about the chaos of transformation. It’s about navigating a world that’s constantly trying to define you while you’re still figuring yourself out. Spiro’s lyrical terrain is rich with coming-of-age contradictions: self-loathing and self-love, invisibility and being watched, fear and freedom.
Raised in London with a DIY ethos and a jazz-informed musicality, Sienna Spiro got her start performing original songs at a pub in Chiswick—raw, unguarded, and likely the youngest person in the room. That energy remains intact in this EP. She draws as much from Amy Winehouse’s grit as she does from Frank Ocean’s introspective slow-burns, and somewhere between those poles, Sienna finds her own lane.
She’s already caught the eyes of the fashion world (Burberry, Calvin Klein, Lacoste), and this summer, she’ll open for Teddy Swims on his U.S. tour. All signs point to a meteoric rise, but what makes Spiro most compelling isn’t just her potential—it’s the immediacy of what she’s already created.
