Snoh Aalegra's "Ugh, those feels again" Helps You Deal, "Careful" & "Charleville 9200, Pt. II" Preempts Initial Damage
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In the countdown to summer's inevitable end we look to music to weather our changes, to curb our unreasonable pining away from love or our desperate search of a deeper attachment. Iranian / Swedish singer-songwriter Snoh Aalegra's sophomore album "Ugh, those feels again" essentially takes the season to work through all the amazing and messy bits to leave us with the tools forged from the aching good stuff to meet her on the other side.
My tools came from "Be Careful" and "Charleville 9200, Pt. II"
Snoh Aalegra's two song run from the advisory "Be Careful" to the dumbfounded "Charleville 9200, Pt. II" crafts armor out of past emotional trauma. Produced by Maneesh (additional production by Doctor O) and written with Malik Yusef, "Be Careful" is an avant garde plugin courtesy of Snoh's vocals. Vocoder, voice modulated singing ebbing and flowing out of shrinking melodies and subtle runs sung at a hasty tempo seemingly tries to outrun and dodge dangerous metaphors and sinking feelings in the songwriting, making no one feel innocent and making it clear that nobody walks away from loving someone cleanly. Contemplative reverb attached to a rustling chord progression drowns out and confuses softhearted tones and keys accenting the main chord's vastness with its own squishy melodies. All while "Be Careful's" fitful drums and percussion sound confined yet harmful, carrying a lot of the emotional weight and consequences in the pattern and eventual percussive explosion during the chorus and outro.
The residual hurt traveling into the Steve Wyreman and No I.D.-produced song "Charleville 9200, Pt. II" feels like complete sequencing of an emotion and the experience associated with that emotion. A thick, hollowed out chord progression throughout the song evokes the sadness of running mascara and tears. The thickness of their sound, especially that descending progression reinforced with synthesizer stabs, brings to mind Teddy Riley describing the weight of feeling Fender Rhodes keys for the first time. To borrow from the title -- ugh, these chords are laden with hurt and so good. Steve Wyreman's acoustic riffs and chords matching Snoh Aalegra's miserable tone and melodies touches the song in a fashion of Glen Campbell's guitar work on Tom Scott's "Today." The guitar provides a possibility for fantastical escapism, only if Snoh can break through.
"Chaleville 9200, Pt. II" makes lonely, confused hurt permeate and sound pretty. Snoh Aalegra's clenching harmonies are filled with now agonizing memories. The "FEELS" artist's burning runs catch flight and allow her chilling melodies to shine through clearly and boldly. Aalegra's and Marcus Semaj's songwriting on the pre-chorus: "Guess I was wrong to feel alone, you were with me in my favorite city, Paris don't feel the same" is crushing because of the realization of the emotional numbness associated with PTSD and the triggers it can usher into your life, altering your world on some level forever.
This two song stretch on "Ugh, those feels again" is how you can change someone and how they can change you. It is emblematic of everything to fear regarding matters of the heart. And no one but Snoh Aalegra could have given it to us like that.
Listen to "Ugh, those feels again" in full below.
Lead Photo Cred: spotify.com
In the countdown to summer's inevitable end we look to music to weather our changes, to curb our unreasonable pining away from love or our desperate search of a deeper attachment. Iranian / Swedish singer-songwriter Snoh Aalegra's sophomore album "Ugh, those feels again" essentially takes the season to work through all the amazing and messy bits to leave us with the tools forged from the aching good stuff to meet her on the other side.
My tools came from "Be Careful" and "Charleville 9200, Pt. II"
Snoh Aalegra's two song run from the advisory "Be Careful" to the dumbfounded "Charleville 9200, Pt. II" crafts armor out of past emotional trauma. Produced by Maneesh (additional production by Doctor O) and written with Malik Yusef, "Be Careful" is an avant garde plugin courtesy of Snoh's vocals. Vocoder, voice modulated singing ebbing and flowing out of shrinking melodies and subtle runs sung at a hasty tempo seemingly tries to outrun and dodge dangerous metaphors and sinking feelings in the songwriting, making no one feel innocent and making it clear that nobody walks away from loving someone cleanly. Contemplative reverb attached to a rustling chord progression drowns out and confuses softhearted tones and keys accenting the main chord's vastness with its own squishy melodies. All while "Be Careful's" fitful drums and percussion sound confined yet harmful, carrying a lot of the emotional weight and consequences in the pattern and eventual percussive explosion during the chorus and outro.
The residual hurt traveling into the Steve Wyreman and No I.D.-produced song "Charleville 9200, Pt. II" feels like complete sequencing of an emotion and the experience associated with that emotion. A thick, hollowed out chord progression throughout the song evokes the sadness of running mascara and tears. The thickness of their sound, especially that descending progression reinforced with synthesizer stabs, brings to mind Teddy Riley describing the weight of feeling Fender Rhodes keys for the first time. To borrow from the title -- ugh, these chords are laden with hurt and so good. Steve Wyreman's acoustic riffs and chords matching Snoh Aalegra's miserable tone and melodies touches the song in a fashion of Glen Campbell's guitar work on Tom Scott's "Today." The guitar provides a possibility for fantastical escapism, only if Snoh can break through.
"Chaleville 9200, Pt. II" makes lonely, confused hurt permeate and sound pretty. Snoh Aalegra's clenching harmonies are filled with now agonizing memories. The "FEELS" artist's burning runs catch flight and allow her chilling melodies to shine through clearly and boldly. Aalegra's and Marcus Semaj's songwriting on the pre-chorus: "Guess I was wrong to feel alone, you were with me in my favorite city, Paris don't feel the same" is crushing because of the realization of the emotional numbness associated with PTSD and the triggers it can usher into your life, altering your world on some level forever.
This two song stretch on "Ugh, those feels again" is how you can change someone and how they can change you. It is emblematic of everything to fear regarding matters of the heart. And no one but Snoh Aalegra could have given it to us like that.
Listen to "Ugh, those feels again" in full below.
Lead Photo Cred: spotify.com
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