“Sit Back Baby, Let It Go”: néomí Welcomes the Craft of Letting Go in a Heartfelt Mantra of Gentleness, Yielding, and Self-Acceptance - Atwood Magazine

      Surinamese–Dutch singer/songwriter néomí softly invites us to find release in “Sit Back Baby,” a warm, gradually evolving folk-pop mantra that embodies softness, surrender, and self-alignment—serving as the soulful heartbeat of her latest EP, ‘Another Year Will Pass.’

      Connect with our Today’s Song(s) playlist

      Listen: “Sit Back Baby” – néomí

      The refrain feels like a gentle hand on your shoulder, tender yet resolute, encouraging you to loosen your grasp on the burdens you’re carrying. In néomí’s embrace, those words transform into both reassurance and challenge, a subtle call to confront difficult emotions and allow them to flow through you. Wrapped in cozy, mellow guitar tones and a hazy, gradual warmth, “Sit Back Baby” confronts uncertainty, sorrow, and self-doubt head-on, inviting them to rest gently. It embodies both delicacy and strength, intimacy and expansiveness, presenting a smoking folk-pop exhale that feels less like an escape and more like a moment of hard-won serenity.

      It can be hard to be honest

      Sometimes you just want to play it cool

      It would be simpler not to act

      To pretend everything is fine

      It can be challenging to seek forgiveness

      Sometimes you just want to overlook it

      Isn't it worth considering

      Don't you want to give it a try?

      So you sit back baby, let it go

      So you sit back baby, let it go

      “Sit Back Baby” single art – néomí

      As the emotional heartbeat of her newly released EP ‘Another Year Will Pass’ (available October 31 via Nettwerk), “Sit Back Baby” encapsulates néomí’s current artistic journey: finding clarity through gentleness, courage through vulnerability, and a renewed focus on allowing her feelings to take space rather than combatting them. This record emerged during a time of significant personal transition, where the Surinamese–Dutch singer/songwriter (and two-time Atwood Editor’s Pick) began reevaluating her pace, perspective, and even her relationship with her own thoughts. The EP explores themes of time, surrender, and realigning oneself, with “Sit Back Baby” representing the distilled, immediate expression of that shift. While other tracks reflect on years of memory, this one resides in that crucial, fleeting moment when an individual opts to release rather than resist.

      “It’s a song where I’m trying to convince myself it’s going to be fine,” néomí tells Atwood Magazine. “I’m reassuring everyone else, especially my loved ones, that it will turn out okay. Of course, I know nothing is truly fine, and it probably never will be, but that’s part of what makes it okay. It’s a call to myself and an encouragement for others: Try to live, try to move on. If things become overwhelming, just sit back and let it go.”

      This blend of sincerity and comfort is the heartbeat of the song. The guitars resonate with a warm, vibrant overdrive, glowing like a late summer’s sky, while néomí’s voice remains light and effortless, creating a beautiful contrast between heat and stillness. Her melodic delivery feels almost conversational, looping back through the refrain until it transitions from lyrics to mantra. Lines like “It can be hard to be honest… it can be hard to do better” and “What is love when you can't risk your heart" shimmer with quiet devastation, yet the song never buckles under their burden. Instead, it shines brighter, raising its weight with patience and grace.

      It can be hard to do better

      When you hide, you’ll always run

      Is it about all the things you’ve said

      Or all the things you’ve done?

      Red gaze, shoelace, run fast, keep pace

      And it all might just fade

      Remember when we

      sat on that hospital bed

      And you cried, and you asked

      And I just laughed

      And I said:

      Sit back baby, let it go

      Sit back baby, let it go

      Sit back baby, let it go

      Sit back baby, let it go

      néomí © Liz van den Akker

      This sense of measured release is mirrored in how she crafted the song’s sound. “I wanted the music to feel like breathing: sometimes shallow, sometimes deep, sometimes unsteady,” néomí shares. “There are moments when the production feels still, almost like we’re cradling a memory. Then there are small surges of sound, just enough to remind you that even in fragility, there’s movement and a sense of quiet power. To me, that captures the emotional journey: starting in uncertainty, embracing softness, and discovering strength in allowing things to simply exist as they are.” This rhythmic motion underlines the track, providing “Sit Back Baby” with emotional form rather than creating a sense of collapse.