New York-based singer/songwriter Samia Finnerty’s debut album, “The Baby”, is about learning how to be yourself, by yourself. Embarking on her first tours––far away from friends and alone in green rooms across the country––she began to untangle just how much of her own identity had been created by those she held close. Each of the twelve songs that make up The Baby find Samia holding up her relationships as a mirror, reflecting her own truths and learning how to show up for herself when there’s no one else around. The result of this introspection is an album that is bold and authentic, philosophizing while surgically examining the mundane.
On whiskey-tinged standout “Big Wheel”, she provides a status report on those closest to her, checking in on a liar in Montana and an old friend in Japan who just bought new shoes. The breathtaking Stellate finds her grappling with power imbalance and a fear of confrontation: “you buy me a big bucket/and I scream into that/and when it overflows you want your money back.” She laments the closing of downtown East Village haven St. Dymphna’s, facetiously boasts getting Fit and Full off apple cider vinegar and kale and threatens to get fully naked in a hot restaurant. She vacillates between humorous and harrowing often within a single line, a skill born from growing up with the internet and all of its simultaneous horrors and pleasures. Each song is centred by Samia’s incredible voice, which effortlessly glides between campfire intimacy and 90’s rock panache.
After a string of hushed ballads and spirited pop/rock tunes, Samia Finnerty (aka Samia) began drawing ears and eyes. The New York-based singer/songwriter’s debut album “The Baby” centers on her low, rather soulful voice, and it finds her at her most self-assured. Operating in a ’90s and 2000s pop/rock lane, Samia thrives on soaring hooks, which carry even more power thanks to her impressive vocal range. Upbeat rock songs like “Fit N Full” and “Big Wheel” possess yearning and the type of humour that everyone’s craving these days, and they bring instantaneous choruses, too. Her downtempo side is just as moving, if not more so—“Pool” and “Stellate” are packed with desire, with the former embracing a more ethereal pop airiness and the latter leaning into stripped-down, contemplative rock.
Samia is a gift that keeps on giving. Just one week on from “Triptych,” the New York songwriter returns to our column today with the track “Minnesota.” Lifted from her recent album The Baby, it’s a melancholic strut about the irrationalities of love, with “Bennie and the Jetts”-esque chords backing Samia as she sings about losing control of her feelings.
