Review: Samia confesses everything in “Darling”

Samia’s second album is an exciting experiment to be honest.

Every person has an ugly side. Normally we try our best to hide our darkest thoughts and spontaneous outbursts of emotion, but on Samia’s second album Honey, those unspeakable feelings become the hook of “Kill Her Freak Out”, the opening track.

The chorus proclaims “I hope you marry a girl from your hometown / And I’ll fucking kill her / And I’ll fucking go crazy”, introducing the listener to what makes this album unique – Samia’s ability to exploit her vulnerability as knife. With anecdotal lyrics that eventually form a complete narrative, “Honey” is an album that deserves all the attention its astounding first track gets.

“Honey” maintains the storytelling feel of Samia’s 2020 album The Baby, which explores her experiences growing up in the entertainment industry. But this time, she brings a little less of the anxieties of growing up. Where “Baby” is convincing with its dramatized narratives, “Darling” reveals the whole messy truth, putting honesty above all else. Samia writes about real people and in nylon interview, she revealed that she used their real names. Each song is replete with ultra-specific references to music and memories. When she mentions the “Pink Ball”, “St. Paul Police Department” or “June, 7 pm” on various tracks on the album, it sounds like she’s revealing secrets.

The central theme of the album is neatly contained in a line from track 10 “Amelia” when the artist sings “Going to the middle of the party / I’m writing a poem, somebody stop me.” During the 11 tracks of “Honey”, Samiya dances, trying to lose herself, constantly drinking and having fun. However, memories and sadness keep resurfacing. Many of the songs feature a baby lullaby that pokes fun at her own naivete as she wrestles with dark thoughts. She combines these worlds beautifully in the title track, singing “I want to go to the beach and die on the beach / I want to be a mermaid.”

After listening to it again, the details of the songs that didn’t work out at first began to make more sense. The production of the songs meets the standard of honesty set by the lyrics. The rhythms and melodies do not seek to dramatize or convince, but rather reflect the reality of the experiences that the songs are about. Each choice seems very deliberate. This makes the songs less fun the first time you listen to them, but they become much more powerful over time.

The album’s emotional peak is the traumatic song “Breathing Song”, in which Samiya recounts her experience with awe and horror, singing, “It was like a movie.” The lyrics are less vague than other songs on the record, and while she doesn’t say it directly, it’s clear that the song is about sexual violence. A chorus of rejection as she sings “no no no / no no no” weaves between verses that tell a larger story. Samia, in addition to being a gifted songwriter, has a very strong voice. It’s sweet and smooth, and goes well with the flowing, loose structure of her lyrics. In “Breathing Song”, Samia’s voice sounds painful, as if she is shouting out the words. The song ends with her friend saying, “Samia, what does it matter / what happened after you said no, no, no / no, no, no.” In the last three words, the background music breaks off and her voice turns into a visceral screech that demands the listener’s undivided attention.

Samia’s compositions fit perfectly into the vulnerable, sad girl, zeitgeist of modern music. As major artists like Taylor Swift and SZA fixate on their insecurities and struggles in their lyrics, reputation has become an increasingly important currency in songwriting. The album’s fourth track, “Mad At Me”, exemplifies this phenomenon masterfully, with its upbeat chorus that pleads, “Are you still/mad at me?”

Samia doesn’t act like she’s understood anything in her lyrics, and if there’s one central message, it’s to feel your feelings. From the misplaced fury of “Kill Her Freak Out” to the condescendingly nostalgic “To Me it Was,” she builds a self-deprecating chronology of rising and falling feelings in “Darling.”

Contact Audrey Abrahams at [email protected]