Honey in Bloomington, MN

After the arrival of her first album of angsty, confessional indie pop/rock,
The Baby
, in 2020,
Samia Finnerty
's profile only rose through the release of a pair of EPs (including a set of covers and remixes by acts such as
Field Medic
,
Palehound
, and
Bartees Strange
) and shows in support of names like
Courtney Barnett
and
Lucy Dacus
. Her sophomore album,
Honey
, explores love from different angles, with an eye toward noticing when it's around. Recorded with musician friends including
Christian Lee Hutson
Briston Maroney
Raffaella
, and various collaborators from her debut, it was tracked at a North Carolina studio owned and operated by
Nick Sanborn
Amelia Meath
of frequent touring partners
Sylvan Esso
.
opens with an emotional bang on the candid "Kill Her Freak Out," whose simple keyboard accompaniment highlights a jealous narrative and lyrics like "I've never felt so unworthy of loving" alongside threats of violence framed as fleeting thoughts. The album moves quickly to the demurer "Charm You," whose midtempo indie pop, '90s-evoking double-tracked vocals, and lilting bridge protectively reject affection ("I don't want to charm anyone this time/I don't want to make anybody mine/Mostly it's just I don't want to end up cryin'"). At this point, the album's just getting started on the emotional spectrum, and
Samia
goes on to adopt a sparkling, dance-oriented electro-pop on the insecure "Mad at Me," gentle folk-rock on the reassuring "To Me It Was" ("a good time"), and a rock club singalong for the self-loathing "Honey" before arriving at the contrastingly earnest "Dream Song," which closes the set with imagery of nature, blood, iron lungs, and death ("There are six minutes of brain activity after the body's dead"). Whether autobiographical or a thought exercise,
is evocative and often relatable, if in turn inevitably alienating and mercurial. ~ Marcy Donelson