Baby Smith's head-in-the-stars sound is a welcome distraction from modern life

Baby Smith is the divine inspiration that emerged out of the creative partnership of Ray Sonder and Saxon Gable. The Australian natives are quite the pair of voyagers, moving to Berlin from Sydney separately and within two weeks of each other to explore new subcultures and write songs. They met, and soon married, spiritually united by their affection for the whimsical, intimate, deeply melodic sounds of 1960s psychedelia and 1990s grunge. What followed their creative union was musical experimentation that led to the genesis of Baby Smith in 2023.

Their latest single, “Take It Or Leave It”, the latest release from their debut album Lately, Love Is Dead, is a delicious dose of cosmic exploration, as bouncing synth flourishes bubble to the top before the track takes aim for the stars. Guitars join the fray, creating an exhilarating ascending melody as the duo sings, "Don't all your earthly worries look so small from where we are right now?"

Speaking of the track itself, the duo says, "Thematically, it's quite fitting because it's our way of describing our project to everybody and saying, 'Take It Or Leave It'. With this album, we focused heavily on making sure all the songs, the album cover, and every single video were exactly what we envisioned, trying to avoid catering to trends and instead making the art we've always wanted to make."

The pair have an excellent way of mining for psychedelic pop influences, making the end result distinctly the work of two driven and like-minded creatives who stick the landing with thunderous applause. You only have to choose one single from the upcoming project to become naturally invested in a fully formed and entirely defined sound, taking the hint from The Orielles' Disco Volador and Teen Dream-era Beach House, expanding with a raft of delicate intricacies guided by texture and feeling.

Speaking of their own inspiration, the duo point towards a collage of inspiration, assisted by Radiooooo.com, which they described as such: “It’s set up to avoid genre traps or what you’d describe as classic artists. It has a map of the world and it has a timeline for different decades of music. You don’t pick specific tracks, but you always get something completely unexpected.”

“Take It Or Leave It” is the firing of the starting gun and you’d be hard-pressed to not see the brainchild of Ray Sonder and Saxon Gable expanding endlessly, with their upward trajectory fueled by a desire to roam the sonic universe.