Bedouine – “Solitary Daughter” Video

Bedouine – “Solitary Daughter” Video

Bedouine is LA-based Azniv Korkejian, a singer-songwriter in the Spacebomb stable whose self-titled debut album is coming this summer. Korkejian was born in Aleppo to Armenian parents and spent some of her childhood in Saudi Arabia before her family won a Green Card lottery and moved to the US. Yet despite her international roots, her poetic, plainspoken music will instantly strike you as Americana of a sort.

The string-laden country ballad “Solitary Daughter,” for instance, reminds me of Leonard Cohen by way of Bobbie Gentry. Each carefully enunciated couplet is a stunner, from “No, I’m not an island/ I’m a body of water” to “I don’t want your pity, concern, or your scorn/ I’m calm by my lonesome, I feel right at home.” It arrives today with a video by Tom Salvaggio that depicts Korkejian as if performing on an old-timey TV show, but not in that hokey, winking way. It’s a perfect visual accompaniment for one of the most gorgeous new songs I’ve heard this year. Korkejian offered some background to NPR:

The song is kind of a reaction to traditional gender roles. It was sort of a rejection of conventional romance; it’s not something that I needed. Sure, it might be something I would like, but I don’t need to be whisked away on someone else’s terms. I guess at some points in the song it feels more aggressive than any other songs that I’ve written. I was feeling sort of fed up.

Check out “Solitary Daughter” below along with prior single “Dusty Eyes” (which is also a winner).

Bedouine is out 6/23 on Spacebomb. Pre-order it here.

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