Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and producer Sabrina Song creates versatile indie-rock aglimmer with her thoughtfully penned reflections. After enamoring fans with a trio of EPs over the years, the 24-year-old artist is ready to unveil her debut album You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same, which arrives early this summer on June 7th. Don’t miss out when she performs tomorrow night in Los Angeles at The Moroccan Lounge on March 9th.
Growing up, Song began with piano and violin lessons, while her teenage years were characterized by a discovery of Joni Mitchell, Carol King, and Mitski. This holy trinity of artists would impress upon her the luxuriant wellspring such deeply personal songwriting could tap into.
From this fountainhead of inspiration came her 2019 debut EP Undone — an effervescent collection that showcased her pearlescent vocals alongside her tender lyricism — its spaciously buoyant pop balladry occupying the same glisteningly vein as contemporaries like Maggie Rogers and Olivia Reid. “The Sun,” a resplendently hopeful incantation that opens Undone, and the gutting but glowing “Sticks and Stones” are exemplary of Song’s affecting origins.
Her next EP How’s It Going to End? would spark an evolution in her sound. Entrenching it in brooding alt-atmospherics (“I’m Over Me Again”), entrancingly danceable anthems (“Say It Like That”), and dreamy alt-R&B made refreshingly kinetic (“Didn’t Say”). Yet romantic retrospections and consolidations of the self remain the cooly intimate center of Song’s music. That same year she opened for Sarah Kinsley — another shimmering contemporary — at the Mercury Lounge in New York.
In 2022, she made a foray into indie pop with the release of When It All Comes Crashing Down. The songs “Strawberry” and “Doors” explore the poignant and pained scenes of two different reactions to relationships that started to splinter and fade. Song also recently shared a heart-wrenching cover of “Linger” by The Cranberries — her ability to evoke the sweet agony of Dolores O’Riordan is a testament to her vocal dexterity.
Her next two new singles — “It Was Not A Beautiful Night” and “Okay, Okay” — come as a preview of her debut LP You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same. One is a riff-roaring slow dance to the day’s doldrums that bursts with fiery longing, the other a delicately paced but eviscerating stroll through a conversation between two lovers desperately trying to voice their anxieties. She also unveiled a live recording of “Okay, Okay” that served as her entry for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest 2024 — giving a joyous and beatific performance that encompasses all that is wonderful about Song as an artist.
Song said of the single: “‘Okay, Okay’ started as a long list of rambles describing the same thing: How can you fully trust that the person you love feels the same, especially in the beginning? The anxiety of being in love can be so intense because you’re at your most vulnerable, and it’s very easy to self-sabotage out of fear or insecurity.”
Words: Steven Ward
You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same is out June 7th. See Sabrina Song live at The Moroccan Lounge on Saturday, March 9th.
Visit Sabrina Song on her website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to “Okay, Okay” the new single from Sabrina Song below!
