New York-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sabrina Song is peeling back the layers on her latest EP, Big Trick, gifted to the world on Friday, May 8th. Throughout the EP’s six tracks, the main theme is disillusionment: pondering the subtler moments of getting older and looking back on your life. Sometimes cheeky and silly, and sometimes grave and wistful, the EP crystallizes how little control we have over the timeline of our lives. We can grieve what didn’t work, and we can laugh at how seriously we sometimes take ourselves, and Song captures that balance wonderfully.
Originally from Long Island, music was always inevitable in Sabrina’s younger years (the irony isn’t lost on her, given her last name, Song). She played piano, performed in plays and the choir, and sang covers at local shops. Encouraged by a teacher to keep a journal and start writing her own music, she released several singles and EPs from 2020 onward, earning recognition from Nylon Magazine, NPR, and more. The public began to fall in love with her gentle vocal style alongside “coming of age” lyrics. She received an artist grant and released her debut album in 2024.
Song describes her debut album recording as being like a 9-5, where she clocked in every day to work with the same producer, intentional, timeline-oriented, and structured. On the other end, Big Trick allowed for a patient, natural workflow in which the compositions, lyrics, and collaborations took shape organically, eventually finding their thread. “Every song was made with different people during different times of the year in different places, and they all just ended up having this synergy in being about that common theme of transition, adjusting, rethinking, and frustration,” Song shares.
“Background Actor” is a fabulous start to the project because the subject of feeling invisible helps build curiosity for what’s to come. Paired with the understated album art, we don’t know exactly what we’re going to get with Big Trick, but we’re excited to learn. Song also released a music video alongside “Background Actor” that brilliantly leans into the “fly on the wall” arc, placing her, frozen and unnoticed, in everyday situations where people interact around her as if she’s a doll in a box.
Next is “Lock,” proving that though her vocals are more delicate in nature, she certainly doesn’t lack heart. “Loving you down to the marrow, down to the spine. How could I let go of something that’s mine?” Sabrina sings, heart on her sleeve. “Big Trick” comes in with more attitude, an edgier, angrier guitar and drum beat.
The title track was the glue that pieced the whole album together. When I asked Song more about the title and how it related to the themes throughout, she mentioned, “It’s not that I felt like I was necessarily tricked, but there’s a changing of perspective in trying to ground yourself in the things that make you happy and find comfort in not knowing what’s going to happen and seeing it as a positive.”
My personal favorite from the EP is “Broken Machine,” which plucks the heartstrings with a more somber tone than the previous songs. There’s a palpable sense of defeat in her lyrics and tone, complemented by washy drums that filter in and out as needed, filling the song with dimension.
Big Trick is her most collaborative album yet, and though many people helped make it a great listen, Song’s voice shines through, sharing her own catharsis to offer a little hope to her listeners, even if that hope is in not knowing how it’ll all end up.
