Charm School

"Charm School" brings back Samia's more propulsive mode, the song moving with an almost playful tension even as it addresses something thornier — the socialization of women, the things we learn to perform and suppress. The guitars have an angular quality, a bit restless, supporting a lyrical voice that's sharp without being cold. Her wit is functional here, a tool for getting at something uncomfortable without sentimentalizing it. Charm school as metaphor for the entire apparatus of feminine presentation — the lessons learned before you know you're learning them. The melody is hooky in the way early Weezer songs are hooky: immediately satisfying but also carrying something underneath. Samia's voice keeps a dry edge that keeps the song from becoming a straightforward lament; she observes her own formation with something like dark amusement. The rhythm section drives forward without relenting, giving the song a momentum that matches the push-forward of its subject. It sits comfortably in the tradition of feminist indie rock that stretches from Sleater-Kinney through Torres — music that names cultural constraint through the experience of navigating it, too smart to moralize, too honest to let it go.