Samia – Honey

Review Score:

B

The Unprecedented Times –

Feb 3 / 2023

Honey’s tracks can often feel cryptic. Sometimes this works to Samia’s benefit. The album revels in its musical haze; a dense fog that shrouds many of these hyper specific yet foreign tales. Samia will often call a person by their first name, addressing them directly and recalling a particular place and time.

When I first heard the singles from Samia’s newest album, Honey, I was admittedly underwhelmed. The opening track, Kill Her Freak Out, is a bizarre choice for a single. It feels out of place when removed from the context of the album. But even once you get the context, you’re no better off in terms of understanding. However, the track does feel like a proper set up in the grand scheme of the record itself. This choice for extreme specificity often has an adverse effect. I’m sure someone knows these references, but it alienates the listener to varying effect. Occasionally this fog clears and shows you a scene that needs no context.

This is used most effectively on “Breathing Song”. Its simplicity reminds me of a Lucy Dacus song, “Thumbs”. I heard Dacus describe the experience of writing and producing this track on a podcast, which is practically a spoken word poem. She says that the song was the story, so she aimed for very bare and minimal instrumentals. But whereas “Thumbs” was direct from beginning to end, Samia takes a different approach. As you try to figure out what Samia is describing for the 7th time on the album, you suddenly get a grim picture of two young adults in a hospital room:

Drove me from the bar straight to the ER

While I bled on your car, the doctor was mean

But you called him a dumbass

And waited there all night

And then you said, “Sorry” and “It wasn’t mine, right?”

“Breathing Song” is a turning point on the album. All of the cryptic, vague imagery that means nothing to the listener is suddenly forgotten. The repeated refrain of “no no no” that echoes on the track feels like the artist’s inability to reckon with everything up until this point. “Breathing Song” is gut-wrenching and sobering. It ends with a sharp cry of denial that cuts off abruptly. The rest of the album is disassociate with tracks like “Honey”, which is the musical equivalent of the trailer for “Dead Island 2”, if I’m allowed to make such a reference here.

What follows “Breathing Song” is a chance to actually catch your breath, which feels forced upon you even if you don’t want it (in a good way). But you can’t help but listen in awe. Even now I feel like Samia punched me in the gut, grabbed me under the arms and stood me up to make me join a high school musical chorus line. Following “Honey” are songs that feel more like the Samia fans know from “The Baby”. But the lingering shock of “Breathing Song” never disappears. 

This album feels less concise than her debut. Listeners will identify that Samia is the same artist at her core, but will also notice a kind of bitterness that wasn’t there before. As with many sophomore albums, the project ebbs and flows into more ambitious territory. Even though it doesn’t always succeed, the experimentation is more admirable than the safer alternative. If you enjoyed her debut, then you’ll enjoy Honey.

Review Score: B+

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.