A native New Yorker and daughter of professional performers,
Samia Finnerty had acted off-Broadway and appeared on prime-time TV by the time she released her first angsty guitar and piano songs as a 20-year-old in 2017. After rising through the touring ranks with opening slots for the likes of
Cold War Kids and
Soccer Mommy on the strength of early songs,
Samia makes her full-length and Grand Jury label debut with
The Baby. Recorded with a trio of producers, including members of
Hippo Campus, the album reinforces her disquieted, '90s-influenced sound while showcasing her way with an effortless-sounding hook as a delivery device for more-demanding, personal lyrics. It opens with the atmospheric, scene-setting "Pool" ("How long do you think we can sit here before we have to move?"), then settles into a bouncy, lite grunge with the driving "Fit N Full." The album's rock-leaning tracks are outnumbered by more pristine and lyrical, adult-alternative-type tunes -- "Big Wheel," the acoustic ballad "Does Not Heal," the jazzy, clean-toned "Waverly" -- but it resists straying far enough away to arrive at "pretty," and its anxiety never quite dissipates. Even the tuneful, stomping pop ditty "Minnesota" talks of "the pit in my stomach" and "some disgusting accident of communion," even cursing before she reluctantly invites a companion to join her out of state. The 11-song set closes with the melancholy "Is There Something in the Movies" ("...that's better than my love?"), a ballad with a memorably high-contrast vocal performance. Taken together,
The Baby's combination of breezy melodies and vulnerability makes for an engaging listen well worthy of the promising designation.