B-Side Guys

There’s something disarming about a title track that doubles as an identity crisis. Celina Savage’s “Baby Names” works the space between folk intimacy and indie pop brightness, building around warm vocal melodies that feel lived-in despite coming from a 19-year-old Berklee student still assembling her sound in real time.

The production keeps things close. Savage’s voice sits right up front, carrying the weight of the song without leaning on arrangement tricks to fill the room. It’s a smart choice for a debut; the restraint lets her phrasing do the heavy lifting, and she’s got enough natural control to justify the confidence. The folk bones are sturdy here, acoustic guitar providing the structural anchor, but the pop instincts keep pulling the melody toward something catchier and more immediate than a straight singer-songwriter cut would allow.

What works is the tension between those two impulses. “Baby Names” doesn’t fully commit to either genre, and that indecision turns out to be its personality. The song drifts between moody undertones and something brighter, almost hopeful, like someone trying on futures to see which one fits. For a track about naming things (people, feelings, versions of yourself you haven’t met yet), the tonal ambiguity feels right.

Savage is still early enough in her catalog that every release functions as a statement of intent. “Baby Names” suggests she’s less interested in picking a lane than in building her own road between several of them. At 19, that’s not indecision. That’s just good instincts.