Album Review: Samia – 'The Baby'
After releasing a handful of singles between 2017 and 2019, New York singer songwriter Samia shares highly anticipated debut album ‘The Baby’ – a coming of age story soaked in heart-wrenching emotions.
‘The Baby’ starts with a fuzzy voicemail. The voice of Samia’s grandmother – What we’re listening to, is the last message she left Samia before passing away. If that doesn’t scream intimacy, opening track ‘Pool’’s glistening soundscape definitely does. Gentle, layered vocals swim in calm seas of soothing synths rippled by echoes of pain as Samia screams: “How much longer ‘til I’m taller? […] How much longer ‘til the morning?” It’s this pain that seems to frame the record. Drifting in and out of consciousness but ever present in themes of fear (fear of being alone, fear of conflict, fear of being misunderstood), it reappears in full force on closing track ‘Is There Something in the Movies’. Glistening with grandeur and elegance, ITSITM is the kind of track that doesn’t let you go. Its deeply emotional atmosphere and Samia’s cries of “everyone dies but they shouldn’t die young” linger long after the record has played out.
But first, Samia lures us into the depth of her exciting indie pop sound. With sparkling guitar lines and upbeat rhythms, ‘Fit n Full’ casts out any shadows ‘Pool’ may have left behind as it breaks into a big, glittering chorus. “For some reason the words “fit” and “full” have always felt mutually exclusive to me,“ Samia says about the song that addresses body image issues. “I wrote this while I was living in the east village, so overwhelmed by the magic and culture around me and literally only capable of thinking about my fucking body. I tried to write this from the perspective of the person I wanted to be instead of the person who stares at her reflection in the window of Veselka.” Raise your hand if you relate. Despite having grown up in circumstances that seem far removed from most people’s reality, everything about ‘The Baby’ is wonderfully close to home. It's a story you can grasp, feelings you can name because you’ve been there. You are the baby or, if you’re lucky enough to have safely made the jump into adulthood, you were at some point.
It's a “play at full volume” kind of record. Softly euphoric despite their dramatic edge, intriguingly infectious songs like ‘Big Wheel’ and ‘Limbo Bitch’ make you want to throw your hands into the air and dance in the rain while gently melancholic numbers like ‘Stellate’ and ‘Triptyche’ showcase Samia’s innate skill to craft vivid images through delicate lyricism – “I would give it up to every man I love. I take what I can get. And every woman too, I would too, that’s my only secret left.” It’s on these slower tracks in particular, that her breath-taking vocal abilities shine the brightest – effortlessly switching between warm and soothing and sharp and piercing in the same heartbeat. On mesmerising ballad ‘Winnebago’ she takes it one step further, changing not only the tone of the track but tempo and dynamic as understated verses turn into a soaring, ethereal chorus.
From top to bottom, ‘The Baby’ is overwhelmingly emotive, impressively honest. A worthy debut for an exceptionally exciting artist ready to shake off the past and take on the world.
Words by Laura Freyaldenhoven