Underrated Artists: Singer-Songwriter Sasha Alex Sloan
The Massachusetts born artist's sincere lyrics with lulling pop melodies and tender vocals feel like a warm hug from your best friend on a dark, lonely day.
If there’s one place that’s worth getting lost on the web, it’s on the audio streaming app Spotify, which is where I stumble upon underrated singer-songwriters like Sasha Alex Sloan.
The moment I saw her name alongside the title of the track, “House with No Mirrors,” something about it gravitated me towards her work. Rather than listening to it on Spotify, I popped the details in my search engine to find the original music video.
There’s something special about watching an artist’s song brought to life through a music video that is different from just listening to it. It adds context and visuals to the experience, as well as a window into the artist’s mind.
In the black and white music video, “House with No Mirrors,” Sloan sings softly to the sound of an acoustic guitar as she wanders around a seemingly haunted house. The walls around her are deteriorating, with cracks, stains and missing pieces. She’s wearing doll makeup and her hair is tied back into a polished bun. After she floats down a flight of stairs, she enters a room with a single Victorian style chair and an unlit fireplace. Natural light pours through picturesque windows. She sits on the chair and pulls out a small cloth, then she wipes away the painted circles on her cheeks.
The chorus of the song resonates with the unsettling backdrop, where she’s appears like a sullen mime pacing from one vacant room to the next. The generous space where she floats appears hollow and cold in the monochrome frame. The song tackles intrusive and relatable self-conscious thoughts that come from staring in a mirror for too long, and how human it is to constantly pick ourselves apart.
“If I lived in a house with no mirrors
Where the walls didn't talk back at me
Maybe I'd dream a bit bigger
If there was nothin' to see
If I lived in a house with no mirrors
Where the walls didn't pick me apart
Maybe my skin would be thicker
If I lived in a house with no mirrors”
Enamored by her poignant prose, raw sound and engaging messages, I had to learn more about her. I soon realized she has garnered some fame, but that recognition has yet to reach the level of being a household name. This ignited a flame in me to spread the word. More music fans need to know about her. She is just as deserving as Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and all the other well-known “sad girl” folksy pop artists that are playing on mainstream radio stations today.
It’s not just me that is expressing praise for this Boston native’s musicianship. The press release for her newer single “Adult” from her latest album, I Blame the World, includes raving reviews from respected publications. Teen Vogue described her single as “jolting with its honesty.” While Consequence of Sound says her single is “managing to capture the humor and heart of existing as a young person right now in equal measure.” If this is your first time hearing about her, it certainly won’t be the last.
Some of Sloan’s newer tracks are collaborations with popular artists that you are probably more familiar with. She’s created music with Charlie Puth, Sam Hunt, G-Eazy, among others. And her debut album, Only Child, did earn a spot on Billboard music chart in 2020.
In her interview with Billboard this year, it says she performed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and reveals that some of her music influences include Queen, Amy Winehouse, Jewel, Brandi Carlile and Regina Spektor. After listening to Sloan’s music, it’s evident that poignant storytelling, much like the artists that she admires, plays a big role in her emotionally rich lyrics.
As much as I enjoyed listening to “House with No Mirrors,” it was her 2018 song “Older” that gave me misty eyes and showcased her brilliant writing talent. That sentimental song made me an instant fan. In her interview with Genius, she explains the creative process behind writing this heart-wrenching, coming-of-age ballad.
“The inspiration for this song is pretty much my entire childhood,” Sloan tells Genius. She explains how her parents divorced when she was 3-years-old, then remarried to other people. When she was 17-years-old, both her parents divorced again. Flashes of her youth are sprinkled in the song describing her parents fighting and how she wanted to be nothing like them.
“‘Older’ is a song I’ve been trying to write my entire life and I never really knew how to write it without sounding too bitter,” adds Sloan. “And I think I had to live my own life and experience things for myself in order to really get the perspective right and understand what my parents went through.”
According to the CDC, the divorce rate is 44.1% in America. My parents divorced when I was very young and my father remarried and divorced again, too. This is a part of my childhood that I don’t talk about often because I struggled to articulate how deeply it affected me. This song gives a voice to young people who are dealing with this issue at home or to older people like myself who were troubled by it in their youth.
“Older” puts this difficult experience into words in such an eloquent and genuine way that it’s unlike anything I’ve heard before. The East Coast songstress expresses this painful part of her upbringing with empathy and honesty, creating a compassionate work of art. As someone who relates to this confusing, messy and emotional experience, it encapsulates the complicated feelings in a simplistic yet powerful way.
Similar to Sloan, listening to this song as an adult and reflecting on my past after having had my own life experiences makes it much easier to empathize with my parents. I admire how effectively this song conveys a progressive outlook in response to such a sensitive issue.
The chorus in the song “Older”:
“The older I get the more that I see
My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me
And loving is hard, it don't always work
You just try your best not to get hurt
I used to be mad but now I know
Sometimes it's better to let someone go
It just hadn't hit me yet
The older I get”
The music video for “Older” flashes a sequence of Sloan’s family home videos. The sentimental images paired with her outspoken verses weave together vivid memories that feel both familiar and strange, like thumbing through an old photo album.
Her latest sophomore studio album, I Blame the World, featuring 11 new tracks, was released on May 13, 2022, by RCA Records. Sloan’s second full-length song collection showcases her artistic growth with intricate guitar arrangements, morose imagery and achingly beautiful narratives.
Learn more about I Blame the World on her website, sadgirlsloan.com.