Traversing your early 20’s can be an extremely difficult challenge for many. Caught between college and your first ‘professional’ job, these first few years of full blown independence are almost impossible to figure out. Sam Pine explores these feelings of uncertainty and feeling caught up in his own personal anxieties and the changing tumultuous world around him on the songs that make up his debut album Evergreen. A trendy Bedroom Pop album, Evergreen was crafted entirely from Sam Pine’s childhood bedroom, adding to the overall intimacy and personality that these songs do possess while still attempting to reach a wide audience. Evergreen acts as a very interesting placeholder in the young man from Denver’s life, as he sings about feeling caught up between feeling like a boy and a man, traversing relationships, figuring his own life and thoughts out, and feeling anxious while the world is going through so much. Sam Pine invites us, very vulnerably, into the bedroom that acted as a solace, a refuge from the outside world for so long.
One thing to instantly note on Evergreen is the overall confidence that Sam has about the overall sound that his project is trying to achieve. A hodgepodge of many current trends in the Bedroom Pop boom by way of R&B, Alternative, and Jazz influence are packaged nicely alongside Sam’s soulful, and raspy reaching voice. All of these influences and nods to other genres work alongside each other and do keep the overall album different enough to keep the listener engaged throughout the entirety of the record. Evergreen captures the essence of a child’s room in the sense that Sam feels free to create whatever he wants to, regardless of musical influence or what other people think works or doesn’t work. Most of the album works as a lush and chill album to turn on as summer is winding down, and feels like the musical equivalent of the golden hour.
Sam’s strengths, showcased throughout Evergreen, come to us on tracks such as ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Why Can’t U’ alike. ‘Sunflower’ is a very light and playful track about the beauty of someone who you admire. It is a song that feels very free in the sense of this album. While I love hearing Sam’s take on deeper topics, ‘Sunflower’ was a moment where I felt like I could just lay back and chill out. It’s a much needed lighthearted track on an album which feels very much like a place for Sam to talk about a lot of uncertainties that he has with himself and the world, which, as someone with a lot of anxiety and uncertainty, I really can understand and empathize with him, but it is nice to know that he does have time for something a bit more fun. ‘Why Can’t U?’ took me by surprise, with it’s intro, the deep, plunky bassline followed by a very mischievous bad boy vocal delivery by Sam. This album is full of a lot of personality, but sometimes it seems to slip through the tracks from time to time, which is not the case on this particular track. Overall, the song is about being absolutely enamored with someone and wanting to be with them, but not necessarily reciprocating your particular emotions. It’s a catchy track that could really resonate with a lot of people and seems like it should be a lot bigger than it is.
Evergreen by Sam Pine is the type of album that you can just turn on at any point in time and you’d instantly just feel chilled out, which is really interesting to consider when a lot of the lyrical content is about a lot of uncertainties that are occurring in one’s life. It works so well as kind of a journal entry of sorts in Sam’s future discography. It’s the type of record that has a certain fanbase that it is reaching for, people who absolutely can’t get enough of what the ‘Bedroom Pop’ umbrella term has come to mean in the past few years. It’s a very bold record made by someone on the fringe of adulthood, and for that, this particular critic applauds it.
Favorite Tracks: Why Cant U?, Sunflower
Least Favorite Tracks: Full Send.
Rating 6.8/10
Listen to 'Why Cant U?' from Sam Pine's debut record, Evergreen, below: