Is Samantha Margret a witch? Her followers certainly think so.

She released her dark-pop, anti-patriarchy single, RAGE on June 24. Only a few hours later, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Now, the EP that bears the same name has arrived, and Samantha is ready: “This EP is about unlearning beauty culture, sexism, and gender norms. So much of the oppression women face hides itself by accusing women of being vain or shallow, but that’s the poison we’re given to cure the illness. Beauty and thinness are the tools of a much more sinister systemic violence.

This project has been a way for me to write myself out of the internalized self-harm and disrespect that I was handed by other women and men who had it handed to them. I wrote the songs fast and furious (literally), but it feels like it’s taken me a lifetime to reach them.”

Listening through, RAGE is the stages of grief, guiding us “on a journey through anger, self-disrespect, healing, and self-compassion”, and a gorgeous transcendence with closing track “Joan of Arc”. It deftly defies any one genre, moving where it’s called with the emotion Samantha channels in each song (and quick shoutout to “Lucky Interlude”, *wink wink*). Jokes aside, your writer was ‘lucky’ to be tapped to compose this musical bridge from “RAGE” to “Fool’s Gold”, and to witness this project in its various stages. The meticulous care and love poured into the EP as a cohesive whole is palpable, and a testament to an artist stepping firmly into her creative voice backed by a formidable creative team of Yang Tan, Heitor Borges, Chelsey Sellona, Exxy, John makes songs, Erin Kintzer, and Piper Payne.

This EP is the sound of a revolution, but not only as a call to arms, but as a true tool of healing. One can hope that with art like RAGE to turn to, the energy women have been conned into pouring into themselves in the form self hate can be redirected and in turn, just might heal the rest of the world.

Listen to RAGE.
Learn more about Samantha Margret.