Azaadi: Freedom

Samia Malik's album is autobiographical, bringing out the personal from the political via a series of original English and Urdu ghazals (classical poetry set to music), punctuated by spoken-word interludes. These provide narrated snapshots of her journey: from being a third-born daughter trapped by misogyny, through a crisis of identity as a British Pakistani to an eventual acceptance of herself.
The first few tracks are underwhelming, to say the least, with uninspired melodies accompanying generic lyricism. It is only with the seventh track that Malik's potential becomes apparent. ‘Khailti Hoon’ is a truly moving original Urdu ghazalsaturated with birha – melancholic longing – in which light additions from Baluji Shrivastav's sitar and Sianed Jones' violin tease out the sadness of lines such as ‘I play in alleyways of memories/I play in roots of destinies’. Similarly, the stripped-back ‘Ik Sheher: A City’, uses haunting Urdu vocals and gorgeous dilruba to echo the questions many British Asians have grown up asking: ‘How can I reconcile these worlds… in which language shall I sing?' If only the rest of the album lived up to the brilliance of its standout tracks.