It’s been a couple of years since we last heard from the visionary artist Salwa, who first popped up on our radar with the hauntingly nostalgic ‘Ghost You’. Now, she’s back with new single ‘GOAT’, a noticeable evolution of her striking use of imagery, symbolism and sound.
The opening with its finger-tapped percussion and warped sub-bass beats offers a restrained avant-garde insight into Salwa‘s cross-cultural world. It’s a sonic manifestation of her growing up between cultures as Lebanese, Palestinian and Scottish. From here, those dark, hypnotic textures welcome in the artist’s seemingly detached vocals, as she lays out complex relationships with family, religion and identity. Her lyrics are looming and mysterious, yet they arrive at a tangible conclusion: “I feel my own mortality.”
This central mantra is cushioned in thumping dance rhythms, euphoric synths and ever-more frenzied Middle Eastern percussion nestled within it all. It provides the perfect vector for dancing through your own existential crisis. For the listener, this reprieve comes in a neat two minute, fifty-five second package, yet for Salwa, ‘GOAT’ was three years in the making. First written before October 2023, this artist delved into scapegoat psychology, the tendency to blame someone else for one’s own problems. Her song is packed with symbolism inspired by the research, which results in such a refined and unique way to explore this universal problem.
Whilst Salwa draws on many dance and synth-pop influences for ‘GOAT’, she savvily avoids clichés and over-worn tropes. It’s not the kind of track that explodes through the speakers or gleefully seeks to grab your attention from the get-go. Instead, the carefully crafted number creeps up on you; it gradually saunters from across the room, pulling you in step by step until you’re utterly under its spell.
You can also listen to ‘GOAT’ in our Electro Feels playlist.
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