photo courtesy of Samantha Preis

Album Review of Samantha Preis: Through Fog

If you’re a longtime reader of the Blog, you know how much I love Samantha Preis’ prior full-length release, Good News. That was a mostly piano-based release that featured Samantha’s skills as a jazz vocalist. Those same rich, crisp vocals with their penchant for well-placed thin wispiness are back, but on Through Fog, they’re accompanied by acoustic guitar, serving up a different musical palette.

The quality and attention to detail on Through Fog, guided by Samantha Preis‘ steady, precise vocals, provide a quality listening experience beginning to end. The songs are pleasant to listen to, but they’re subtle and complex, and it takes a few listens for favorites to emerge.

image courtesy of Samantha Preis

Throughout the disc, listeners are treated to Samantha’s deeply emotional vocals, with pacing, vocal emphasis, and cadence delivering an enthralling, deeply moving listening experience, with the guitar picking and strumming serving as melancholy accompaniment. Much of the content, lyrically, is quite heavy, though I’ve not gone into great detail in the review; I’ll leave that for you to experience during your first listen.

The music and singing are enthralling, making Through Fog a satisfying beginning-to-end listen. And favorites develop, especially after multiple listens.

Opener “The Gun and the Gold” is one such song, a developing favorite, with Samantha’s “wo-oah, wo-oah, wo-oah” providing engaging vocal bridges.

Next up, “Romance,” deftly utilizes that old jazz vocalist’s trick of changing tempo with almost every word, placing emphasis where it deserves, blurring the line between speaking and singing very tunefully. Notice – and you won’t be able to avoid noticing – the pattern of the “making eyes” section of the song.

“Mexico Sun,” which follows, is mostly soft and meandering, lyrically deep and thoughtful, with a well-placed musical storminess in a couple of spots as both the guitar and vocals intensify before trailing off again, providing an emotional journey that seems to let off musically right where it started. Stylistically, “Men I Don’t Recognize” kind of does the same thing, though with a very different vibe, darker and quite a bit more haunting.

“Crow” is a bit thicker instrumentally and more vocally insistent and varied than the norm on Through Fog, with strings providing well-placed emphasis, as this song extends the dark, heavy nature of this portion of the album. In the context of this musically low-key song collection, this is what passes for cranking up the volume.

On “Spaceship,” Samantha goes a bit more singer-songwritery than usual, with verbal picture-painting, thoughtful musings, and some cool, almost seventies-ish “oo-ooh” vocalizations. Where much of the rest of the disc might be introspective, somewhat experimental vocal jazz, this is clearly meant for a quiet room full of people, almost to the point that you expect to a few random claps from listening room patrons who simply can’t help themselves as the song comes to a close.

“Decorate Ourselves” has a little richer music bed, with the vocals taking a bit more of a starring role, staccato at times, playing the role of percussion at those times in particular.

“The Goodnight Song” rises and falls like the waves, guided by rhythmic strumming and vocal peaks and valley, suggesting a new, very mellow take on a drinking song, featuring – and closing with – “and we’ll meet further on down the road.”

Piano makes its appearance as the featured – and only – instrument on final track “Fleur de Lisa,” a melancholy, purely instrumental epilogue to an album that’s surprisingly emotional and powerful for such a quiet, calm collection of songs.

My three personal favorites on this disc – if I were to listen to them individually – are probably “The Gun and the Gold,” “Romance,” and “Spaceship.” However, I’d recommend taking in the entire album in one sitting. Samantha Preis has a powerful journey for you on Through Fog. It would be a shame miss any parts of the experience.

Looking Ahead

Samantha doesn’t have any upcoming shows scheduled at the moment, but when she does, you’ll find them here on the “tour” page of her website. You can also be a part of Samantha’s musical journey by becoming a member (shouldn’t it be “patron”?) at her Patreon page.