- Words Darcy Culverhouse
Areej beckons listeners into her sonic dreamland in latest track ‘Bandwidth’, accompanied by a mesmerising new video.
If there’s one thing to be certain about, it’s that Areej’s music cannot be categorised by a singular genre. She joins the flock of artists who resist being confined to a single stylistic category, making it hard to pinpoint her sound. However, if you look somewhere in-between the energy of pop, the smoothness of R&B, the funkiness of jazz, and the harmonies of soul, you’ll find Areej’s sound. Her music is vast, fresh and quite frankly addictive, with her latest single, ‘Bandwidth’, marking another addition to her genre-bending roaster.
Music surrounded Areej throughout her childhood. Classic Arabic music—ode to her Moroccan-Sudanese heritage—played as much a part in her artistic development as the R&B classics her father blasted throughout their West London home. The outcome? Not only the ability to impressively blur genre boundaries, but the capacity to tap into her multi-cultural heritage and inspirations with ease.
In ‘Bandwidth’ we see Areej’s diverse inspirations come to life. Illustrious neo-soul songwriting that resonates with the vibes of the 90s is sung at a delicate high-octane pitch. Acute piano keys swoop in for a short amount of time, all whilst the slow spellbinding drums set the melancholic tempo. The song has a soulful tone, evoking a sense of honesty and spirituality that is individualistic to Areej’s artistry. There is a striking beauty about the track that sees Areej manifest sweeping soundscapes that we can’t help but succumb to.
In the accompanying video, we see her light up the frame against blue skies and pink neon, intercut with lo-fi footage walking around the streets with a bunch of sunflowers.