With her boundless voice and blistering lyricism, Samia has a special knack for revealing big situations through intimate details. Whether discussing her hamster’s name in ’21,’ or getting a rock star to listen to her music on ‘The Night Josh Tillman Listened To My Song,’ Samia finds lyrical perch by baring her soul through an itinerary of the everyday.
I thought of this while watching the video for her latest single, ‘Milk.’ Despite Samia’s repeated assurances throughout, I get the impression that the mess she is referring to here is more than ‘just spilled milk.’ No matter how often she tells you not to worry, or how many interesting details she confesses throughout (bathing in the grease on the McDonald’s floor, jumping off the pier at the seaport) you know there’s also something left unsaid, lingering like a suggestive gloss under the track’s shadowy contours and pulsating tension. It also marks an exciting turn from her previous work. Samia’s voice was never a stranger to the anxieties of growing up in a world that tends to shame the thoughts, voices, and bodies of outspoken feminists. But on ‘Milk,’ the emotional dial is turned up even louder, revealing what in other singers would be vulnerabilities. For Samia, these serve as forceful reminders of just how potent an artist she is becoming. Watch the video below, and see Samia perform at Rough Trade on Thursday, September 27th. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)