One Track Mind

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There is a sense of worldliness in Boshra AlSaadi’s recordings, but not in the sense of lifted instrumentation or copped rhythmic devices. Rather, the young songwriter’s work possesses an ineffable maturity and well-formed center of balance which makes it spellbinding upon first listen. SAADI, as she prefers to be called on the solo front, was born in Damascus, Syria before moving to Pittsburgh and later Manhattan’s East Village, the place she still calls “home.” As the vocalist for Looker, SAADI is no stranger to the microphone, but on her upcoming debut she has truly stepped into her own. Serious Business will be releasing the Bad City 12″ EP this month, and with its myriad influences and cohesive sound, it seems destined to find lots of appreciative ears.

Of the four original songs and one remix on Bad City, “Pollen Seeking Bees” is sandwiched in at the third slot. The track is premised on two main elements: SAADI’s vaporous vocals and a plucky piano rhythm that burbles throughout the two and a half minutes. When SAADI sings “fading into ether that transmogrifies a heart, the fog is knee deep,” she may as well be referencing the song itself, which floats through an entrancing haze despite the crispness of the production. “Pollen Seeking Bees” is simply the sort of cut that sucks a listener in, immersing one in the world the song is actively constructing. There are shades of Cocteau Twins and Asobi Seksu at work, but SAADI retains a clarity to her sound that neither of these acts was ever concerned with. Rather than achieving ethereality through walls of fuzzed out reverb, SAADI concocts the same dreamy feeling with the delicacy of her voice and instrumentation.