Some albums arrive like thunder. Others, like a late summer storm — warm, heavy, and healing. Old Enough to Save Myself, Rumia’s sophomore project, falls gently into the latter. It doesn’t demand attention; it earns it. Through 12 carefully sculpted tracks, the Berlin-based artist invites us into an interior world both bruised and brave.
With one foot rooted in 90s trip-hop and the other in acoustic soul-searching, Rumia creates a sonic space where contradictions coexist: soft yet sharp, nostalgic yet forward-looking, intimate yet vast. It’s the kind of record that doesn’t just soundtrack your summer, but helps explain your past and maybe — if you’re lucky — your present too.
“Wasn’t in my power to save them / If known, I would’ve saved myself,” she sings on “Kept All the Pain,” the aching centerpiece of the album. It’s less a hook than a wound being named out loud, a quiet rebellion against inherited burdens. Produced by Manuel Colmenero, the album dances between analog warmth and digital chill — think Mazzy Star meeting Phoebe Bridgers under the haze of a Berlin moon.
Rumia sings in both English and Spanish, mirroring the duality of her heritage and her healing. The result is a record that feels borderless — emotionally and sonically. Whether it’s the ethereal surrender of “Shift In The Air” or the beautifully defiant “Role Model,” Old Enough to Save Myself makes vulnerability feel like its own kind of armor.
This isn’t just a follow-up to her acclaimed debut Forget Me Not — it’s a reintroduction. One that says: I’ve bled, I’ve built, and I’m back. And this time, I’m saving myself.
