Random Reviews by Rachel: Sip 'n Stream "Show Up" by Samia
Oh, hello! So, I’ve had this idea of pairing a song with a cocktail for a few months now and here I am finally doing it. It’s nothing new: entertainment and hospitality have walked hand in hand for centuries. * insert Miranda Priestly meme: Dinner & a show? Groundbreaking. * But! that never stopped The Candlelight Pavilion from declaring themselves as world famous, and it certainly won’t stop me! My thought is simply to talk about what type of beverage a particular song inspires (but only after I ramble on about it - of course). Kind of like when you self-reflect/take a buzzfeed quiz on what your spirit animal is, except it’s matching a song with its “spirit beverage” 🤩 I’ve also been told by friends & family alike that I have a pretty random, yet delightfully descriptive mind, so I thought it’d be fun to start sharing my takes on things. 😽 (Hint: my cocktail analysis is way at the bottom, like one of those annoying food blogs that trick you by saying it’s a recipe and then it’s actually a full retelling of their family reunion where their nephew had pink eye, but the BBQ still slapped. 🙄)
So here we go! This past Friday “Show Up” by Samia showed up on my Release Radar and it instantly took up residence inside my entire being. The first time I heard it I was taking a shower while the playlist from Spotify was on; I had no idea who the artist was and my hands were obviously too wet to stop everything & check, so I just let the song wash over me. In the first verse she makes a Muna reference which triggered about a million and a half quarantine feels. You see, I met Muna during the quarantine. Not literally, obviously, we were SaFeR aT hOmE - I wasn’t meeting anyone… No, my friend Bailey played a Muna song during her yoga flows on Facebook live. I mean, that sentence alone: “a yoga flow on Facebook live.” Woof. #quarantinelyfe 🙃 So, there I was hearing this song for the first time, feelin all the feels: a deep ache for everything lost in the pandemic as well as a contentment for being able to simply exist with no pressure to achieve in a certain time frame cause the world was closed anyway… now with the world slowly, but surely re-opening it’s as if we can already look back on the unprecedented present with hindsight, although I wouldn’t say mine is 20/20 yet. I’ve been feeling more overwhelmed than usual by my deep yearning for a sense of clarity & identity now that everything is “different”.
Wait. WOAH! That entire spiral played out cause of one line in a song you’d never heard before??
Why yes, yes indeed. That’s just a glimpse bb. 😉 After I was thoroughly cleansed, I dried myself off and investigated who sang that song that sent me. When I found myself on Samia’s artist profile I realized the reason this song showed up in my Release Radar playlist at all was because I had followed her after my roommate last summer introduced me to her song “Someone Tell The Boys” - OH MY GOSH!! This SONG!!! Obsessed with it from the moment I heard it. It just resonated with every fiber of my being. I wish I had written it and that it was mine. So so good. I fell down the Samia rabbit hole & realized that this artist certainly wouldn’t be intimidated or probably even surprised by my existential crises.
But anywho, back to “Show Up”. I think it’s excellent. It feels like her own version of a shower thought spiral, tbh, but just in song form. She references her dad, her friends, old bands, touches on regret & strange feelings, then sums it up in each chorus about how she’ll never stop showing up for the people she loves. I mean, SAME. No matter how deep the valleys or high the cliffs, the past year definitely showed me how hard I want to keep showing up for the people I love, and who the people are that show up for me. As a songwriter, this is a great example of how specificity actually invites clarity & connection through a universal feeling. Like her references to Brooklyn & specific people’s names: I don’t know where the Stratified Drylands are that she and Gabe drove through, but somehow I still felt like the experience was hella relatable 🤷🏼♀️ My only critique is, if it were me, I probably would’ve repeated the bridge before cutting to her super panned out, reverb-y, under-water-y final chorus. The bridge has some intriguing lyrics, but the whole section goes by so fast that you pretty much miss them on your first listen.
A👏🏼NY👏🏼WHO👏🏼 let’s give this song a boozey identity!
Gin Cocktail, specifically the Pale Princess from Oscar Wilde, paired with a deli sandwich. Anything from a bodega. Definitely has mustard. Like, a little bit too much mustard, but it was only $5 so whatever. What’s in a Pale Princess you ask?? “Gin Lane 1751, Grapefruit-Cello, Fresh Grapefruit and Lime Juice with a dash of Peach Bitters. The bold flavor of Grapefruit combined with the herbaceous notes of Gin balanced out with a hint of peach.” (again, 100% Oscar Wilde’s creation and not mine). I feel like this song speaks Pale Princess to me cause gin feels more sophisticated than vodka and less reckless than tequila & the song talks about growing up, but then the grapefruit & lime juice keep it fresh and feminine which line up with still feeling young and lost. 🤩🍸👸🏻
Give it a listen and let me know what ya think!
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As a bonus! Here’s the definitive ranking of Samia songs (until I change my mind):
Someone Tell The Boys
Is There Something In The Movies?
Winnebago
Show Up
Django
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That’s all from me babes! Happy streaming 😘