Australian singer, songwriter and producer SANNIA has featured once before on this blog, but it was way back in 2021 when Jane ran the rule over her single Sad Rich Girls. Now I’m pleased to say she’s back with her debut album that’s been ten years in the making. It’s called James.
By Graeme Smith
SANNIA started writing music at the tender age of fourteen. Dedicated to music ever since, she hit a national audience thanks to her appearance on Australia’s version of The Voice where she reached the final.
James is a collection that focusses on SANNIA’s on-again-off-again relationship of her late teens and early twenties, and the emotional impact it had on her life and her self-confidence. It opens with love you like, a slow-burning but anthemic track that cuts straight to the point with storytelling lyrics and compelling vocals.
August ups the tempo while staying on the theme of heartbreak before focus track stuck in your orbit provides an early highlight. It has a punchy beat that will have you moving while the quality of SANNIA’s vocals are fully on display, especially during a soaring, pleading and memorable chorus.
Trigger represents a lower point in the album’s emotional journey with fiery and melancholic lyrics. Don’t you know? is a collaboration with electronic artist LANKS and is another highlight. It keeps things downbeat, introducing brooding keys and some atmospheric experimentation before exploding into a soulful chorus.
Doubts is a raw and intimate moment with descriptive, visceral lyrics. The Good Ones introduces gospel and blues elements in a simmering number before Travelling, featuring Jason Rodi, livens things up with a steady but relentless beat and some airy etherealness. Salvation is a steady rising turning point and another highlight.
Awake returns us to the blues, combining it novelly with electronica. Daylight follows it with some bright vibrancy. Lay your heart down gives us some gentle and reflective RnB. Go and get over, a re-recorded version of her 2018 debut single, then closes the album with some catharsis.
Helping to produce James are industry giants Andy Mak, Oscar Dawson, Gab Strum, Toby Dundas, Jackson Barclay and Colin Leadbetter. You can check out the album below.