Written by Jennifer Moglia
Something that I’ve really grown to love as I’ve gotten older and gotten more into music is how rich the local alternative scene is here on Long Island, New York. One of my favorite discoveries that I’ve made has been Sam Pollet, a singer-songwriter I started listening to about two-and-a-half years ago, who specializes in personal, often heart-wrenching lyrics paired with acoustic pop-punk goodness.
This week, she released “Ghost Face”, a piece of self-proclaimed “spooky season music.” She says, “digging deep it’s a song about hypocrisy, [but] on the surface it combines all of my favorite Halloween imagery.”
The song opens with the blunt “I think of you, my stomach twists”, accompanied by just Pollet and her guitar. In the remainder of the first verse, she explores the Halloween references mentioned earlier, from a ghost in your house to riding past that one scary mansion in your neighborhood that everyone loves to speculate about.
My favorite section lyrically comes a little later, when she sings, “When I don’t feel as hollow as the cut-up pumpkins lining my front porch / Guts spilling on the concrete / A mirror image of me”, comparing carved jack-o-lanterns to her own feelings of emptiness in a hauntingly beautiful way. The appeal of Pollet’s lyricism comes not only from her strong writing but her delicate, yet piercing delivery, making you feel every single emotion in an often quiet but always powerful way.
Sonically, things kick in as the song finishes up, where some distorted elements are layered over the vocals and coupled with the backing track as well at the very end. The closing lines of “Greatness is waiting at my door / You’ll trick and treat then ding dong ditch me when you get bored” sum up the general mood of this song as a whole, a heartbreak communicated through your favorite October traditions.
In each new track that Sam Pollet releases, she is always growing as both a songwriter and as a musician in general, constantly bringing something new to the table, and this track was no exception. She’s called this a song she has always wanted to write, which definitely shines through; the amount of love and care packed into these three-and-a-half minutes is insane.
“Ghost Face” is available to stream everywhere you listen to music, as well as the 2020 singles “Bee Sting” with Christa Ferry and “Better Than Me” with Matt Stoll, the 2019 two-song EP “June”, and her debut full-length which came out last year, “Solace.” To make sure you see what she does next as soon as it happens, you can follow her on Twitter @SamPollet12, and you can follow us on Twitter @lgndsoftmrw!