Sami & the Engine - Sami & the Engine (EP)

You may recognize Sami Serrano from her work with the great Quentin Arispe but did you know she also has her own band & they recently dropped an Indie gemstone of a self titled debut EP? It’s everything you could ever yearn for in terms of this genre, great instrumentation as well as some of the most powerful songwriting you’ll hear all year. Sami, Justin, Geronimo & Ray all combine their musical influences & styles for an amalgamation that is uniquely all their own, hitting you in the ears with “Full Force”. Sami sings with the utmost fervor as she hands her heart over to someone she knows isn’t gonna handle it as delicately as they should but in her desperation, goes along with it in hopes that they won’t shatter it’s pristine glass structure.

That Indie Alternative & Jazz influences really shine through on the poignant “Obvious”. Sami’s humming of her hooks is utterly infectious as they whisk your worries away into the four winds. She’s dreaming of a love lost & what could’ve been had she seen an actually future with the two of them. As much as she knows she needs to just let go, she can’t help but pine over what once was a fulfilling relationship. It can be hard letting another person down, just as much as it can be hard to see the tale tale signs of someone pulling away, as obvious as they may be, it ain’t always like that in our eyes, sometimes you just need that little nugget of information that pulls it all back so you can see the situation for what it is rather than whatever idealized image of this person you’re romanticizing in your mind.

Sami’s lyricism on “Mesquite Road” is some of her best as she questions the people she’s around, as well as the circumstances she finds herself in being around said people. This record sounds like pure tour life, just a bunch of friends on the road, playing out of town gigs, experiencing life outside their own individual bubbles, as well as getting into a few shenanigans here & there, some that even land them in jail for the night but the show must goes on. Closing out with “How It Feels To Love You”, Sami explains her difficulties in doing so & it’s not as easy as the other person may think, they may not recognize their own faults but she certainly does. It’s almost just a waiting game at this point for it to all go downhill before she walks away from it. It’s sad when you want to love someone but who they are just makes it hard to but still you stick it through in hopes for them to change only for them to never so something’s gotta give eventually.