Edgar Degas’s depiction of ballet dancers stand among his most popular and enduring paintings, capturing delicate movement in vivid watercolour. But behind their tasteful aesthetic are allusions to the harsh realities faced by such dancers in the late 19th century – sexualised by audiences and forced into prostitution when they were off the stage. On “Bovine Excision”, the excellent opener to Bloodless, Samia likens herself to a Degas dancer – a fitting point of comparison for a song about contorting one’s self to the point of being unrecognisable in order to appease the desires of a man. Against thrilling and unsettling loud-quiet dynamics, that suggest Samia could have a promising future soundtracking horror films should she so want, she delivers a simple request born out of desperation, “I just wanted to be your friend”. Over a woozy swell of drums and electric guitars, she asks to be reduced to a “cup of tea in your cold hand / And drained, drained bloodless”, seeking hollowness in the pursuit of perfection.
What follows “Bovine Excision” are 11 tracks about navigating one’s late 20s – a period where the turbulence of coming of age has slowed and one begins deconstructing internalized misconceptions and destructive ways of being. Fittingly, Samia’s depiction of the journey of growth is far from linear. After “Bovine” comes the gorgeous “Hole In A Frame”, which finds the 28-year-old espousing the benefits of “a little death” and making peace with plans gone awry (“Nothing goes how it was gonna / You miss the boat, you gotta swim”). But next arrives “Lizard”, a synth-pop banger that takes place in a booze-soaked setting and finds its narrator flirting with destruction (“Peace is a double-locked door / I’m the whore with the extra key”). “Don’t do it”, Samia repeats to herself in a winking tone, suggesting she’s already decided against heeding her own warning.
There’s an unmistakable heaviness to the themes of Bloodless, beyond its lofty (and well-executed) ambitions of examining the human condition under a microscope, much of its runtime is dedicated to observing dysfunctional relationships in various stages of decay. On “Dare”, Samia depicts a relationship with a man “adorned in vacancy / and staring blankly”, and on “Sacred” sings, “You never loved me like you hate me now”. While on the acoustic guitar-driven “Proof”, she bemoans being “loved like a child’s toy or cigarette” – which is to say going from being intensely adored to promptly discarded. Even “North Poles”, which begins with depictions of a fairy tale romance, ends with the admission “You cannot stop crying / I cannot stop drinking”.
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. From the crescendoing “Bovine Excision” and the lilting indie-folk of “Fair Game” to melodic indie-pop masterpieces like “Lizard” and “Spine Oil”, Samia makes creating indie earworms seem effortless. Her keen sense of humour helps too, with Bloodless containing multiple laugh-out-loud lines. On the aptly titled “Craziest Person”, she confesses “it’s just that the craziest person in the room / Makes me the second craziest person in the room”, while on the similarly aptly titled “Pants”, she wonders aloud “who was I when I bought these pants?”, shortly followed by the sighing admission, “They’re non-refundable”. See also: “Proof”, whose devastating dispatches from a dysfunctional relationship unexpectedly build to a well-earned sign-off of “You don’t know me, bitch”.
But what also makes Bloodless so special is Samia’s ability to find moments of unadulterated joy amidst it all. On the stunning, finger-picked “Fair Game”, she depicts fleeting bliss with lightning in a bottle precision: “It’s a hot night and I’m a sun bug / I’ve got no shortage of brilliance / If you can catch me in a clear cup”. Listening to it, I’m reminded of a 2021 quote from singer-songwriter Sarah Mary Chadwick, who was reflecting on writing one uplifting song for an album that otherwise concerned the darkest recesses of the human mind. “Sometimes things are beautiful and everything holds its breath for a second”, she told Flood Magazine. On “Fair Game”, Samia allows us a glimpse into one such moment.
Ever since her 2020 debut LP The Baby, Samia has established herself as a writer who confronts the harshness of existence not with horror, but with curiosity – be it the spectre of mortality on 2023’s “Dream Song” or the oppressive nature of fame and the tragedy of dying young on “Something In The Movies” three years prior. This approach prevails across Bloodless and Samia speaks to it directly on album closer “Pants” as she defines her ethos as a songwriter: “I’ll trade the why for how”. In the song’s, and therefore the album’s, final moments she becomes transfixed by nature, singing “Pink blossoms luring you to an invitation from the sapling / Makes you wonder which magical things were already happening”. Sometimes, the only way to make sense of the complex tapestry of our existence is to look outside of ourselves entirely.
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