Bloodless

Samias sophomore album, Honey, was a mercurial one that touched on a variety of stylistic slants under the indie umbrella as it navigated a wide emotional spectrum. After returning to the studio with Honey co-producer Caleb Wright, Hippo Campus Jake Luppen, who co-produced her debut, and singer/songwriter Raffaella, a close friend and prior collaborator, Samia emerges with Bloodless, a record that takes a similarly diverse approach to style -- country-rock, ambient pop, indie rock, singer/songwriter folk, and more -- but instead often plops several of them into the same song, with curious results. Thematically, Bloodless finds Samia critical of past relationships and especially the personas she adopted in order please; she now just wants to be herself. Following a brief intro that ends with the sound of a radio dial changing stations, Bloodless gets going with gentle fingerstyle guitar on the country-inflected "Bovine Excision," a song that eventually picks up heavier rock instrumentation without abandoning its country sway and that, after asserting "I just wanted to be your friend," ends with the metaphor of a bloodletting. The somewhat graphic nature of that songs lyrics is a recurring element on a set of tunes that can be alternately provocative, titillating, gross, or cringe -- and thats likely the point, bucko, get used to it -- as on closer "Pants," an episodic six-minute track that ropes in grand, echoing dream pop; sparse, nervy guitar rock; a half-whispered outro with a contrasting, skittery groove; and the repeated tease "Ive got nothing under these Levis." Elsewhere, the table-dancing "Lizard" ("You glide heedlessly/Wiping blood with your upper hand/Making a wall of me") injects an airy, midtempo indie rock with a mix of canned and live drums, additional chopped-and-screwed vocals, and what sounds like synthy pedal effects, and then theres the quiet, quasi-acoustic ballad "Proof," whose chorus consists of a repeated "You dont know me, bitch." For some classic hard rock drum fills, look no further than "Carousel" ("Pretend to sleep in separate beds at Christmastime"). Meanwhile, the changing-channels conceit recurs throughout, even though the album doesnt present contrasts so much as cycling farrago. 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 Samias knack for strong melodic hooks and open vulnerability here are unquestionable and consistent. ~ Marcy Donelson