Bloodless

Samia’s voice alternates between plainspoken and liltingly melodic, occasionally suggesting doubt and ambivalence. But an edge often enlivens her bittersweet, uneasy lyrics.

While its tunes are a little weaker than that of her previous albums, she emulates the “poetry without the words” she mentions on “Sacred”, snapshotting around a subject in order to construct a clear picture. But sometimes the resulting image is a little hazy.

There’s something absurdly listenable about the whole package, and I suspect that the listening experience will only get better as the weeks go by and the thermostat cranks up to increasingly unbearable temperatures. This is, after all, one of those records built for those moments spent wallowing in the heat haze. Sounds like a bloody good time.

A less talented songwriter would allow their music to collapse under the weight of such subject matter, but such never comes close to being true on Bloodless. Part of this is due to the compulsive replayability of these tunes.

That image of her — other people's perceptions — have always haunted her work, but near the end of Bloodless, on "Proof," Samia takes control of the narrative. As she confronts being loved "like a child's toy or cigarette" atop the descent of a warm yet aloof finger-plucked acoustic guitar line, she's at her most powerfully direct and poetically impact.

Bloodless doesn’t offer catharsis in any traditional sense. It doesn’t try to tie up loose ends or reclaim the narrative. Instead, it sits in the space between presence and absence—and its greatest strength lies in what it chooses to leave unsaid.

We already knew Samia was a sublime songwriter, but on her third album, she sets a new bar – and then some.

Bloodless is the work of a poet at the top of her game.

The result is often beautiful, but it doesn’t come easy. This is transformation by scalpel, told in songs that are messy, defiant, and unflinchingly honest.

Whether, taken together, the take-me-or-leave-me Bloodless is ultimately appropriately chaotic and admirably confrontational or, rather, overcooked is up to the beholder, but Samia's knack for strong melodic hooks and open vulnerability here are unquestionable and consistent.

‘Bloodless’ will fascinate anyone who stumbled across the path of ‘Honey’, while also charming new listeners.