In her standout single, ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Darkish,’ the award-winning Canadian-Egyptian artist Sarah Shafey conjured a maelstrom of emotion and sound, marking a daring new chapter within the legacy alt-rock.
Infused with a hypnotic etherealism seamlessly married to the uncooked, sludgy aesthetics of grunge, Shafey’s newest single completed what Wolf Alice began. Her singular sonic footprint blazes a path for a stylised resurgence, one which sinks swathes of substance into type and is layered with sonic transitions from the ferocious growl of grunge to the futuristic shimmer of synth-driven indie rock.
Her newest album ‘The Paper Bag Princess’, from which Don’t Be Afraid of the Darkish was taken, attracts from the empowering narrative of Robert Munsch’s kids’s e-book, infusing her music with a feminist ethos that places her in Kathleen Hanna’s lyrical league whereas vocally permitting her harmonies to drip Shirley Manson-esque seduction.
Shafey’s method to this album—an eight-song manifesto melding private revelation with a ’90s grunge backdrop—indicators a defiant overturning of outdated norms. As she navigates via a soundscape crafted with chugging guitars and ethereal synths, Shafey not solely redefines her musical id but in addition challenges the listener to embrace a story of power and self-discovery.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Darkish was formally launched on November 15th; stream the one on SoundCloud now.
Evaluate by Amelia Vandergast