At Swim is the third studio album by Irish singer/songwriter Lisa Hannigan. The album was released worldwide on 19 August 2016, through Hoop Recordings and Play It Again Sam.

Hannigan had been touring for more than two years with her 2011 album Passenger. The words, she says, just dried up. Lisa Hannigan decided to leave Dublin and travelled to Paris where she resided for a number of months and then travelled onwards to London in an effort to overcome a period of writer's block and hoping her new adventure would inspire her to begin songwriting again. However, Hannigan failed to write any new material before returning to Dublin. Hannigan decided to leave Dublin and move to London more permanently. Here she began writing new material and began putting down demos, but struggled with songwriting.

Her songwriting was finally encouraged by an unsolicited e-mail from Aaron Dessner of The National. Dessner requested Hannigan and himself should work on her new material, both artists met in Copenhagen over a weekend in an effort to come up with some ideas for the new album with particular focus on the album's theme and sound. They would both later meet up again at Lismore Castle and Cork City to tie down the album's identity.

Dessner soon became the producer of the album, sending her music and lyrics by email. Hannigan finally went to Hudson in upstate New York to begin recording.

The work of Irish poet Seamus Heaney inspired her songwriting, to the point that one of his poems Anahorish appears on the album. Themes of friendship, bereavement, homesickness and a new life in a vast city such as London have all inspired the album songs.

During the recording of the album Hannigan found herself split between Dublin and London, before some of the recording moved onto New York City.

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Wikipedia