Toronto's Bria Salmena is a familiar presence, but an unknowable one all the same. In the years leading up to today's release of her debut album Big Dog, she's fronted post-punk outfit FRIGS, toured as a backing musician for Orville Peck, recorded multiple Cuntry Covers collections under her first name, and teamed with filmmaker A. Matthews for Euro-club project God's Mom.
Any debut with this many road-worn years of industry experience behind it can sometimes feel like an insurmountable mountain; to introduce yourself, truly, to an audience that has grown and changed alongside you, but only had to accept the parts you had chosen to perform. "Drastic" is a near-perfect opening statement, with twinkling atmospherics, hazy guitars and a driving pulse introducing Salmena longingly reminiscing on a simple moment in which she felt seen, adding, "I don't have big expectations / Whatever that means."
But the expectations for Big Dog were undeniably sizeable (again, whatever that means!), and the opener's momentum carries on easily through the jaunty cabaret pop of "Backs of Birds," the krautrock jam "Closer to You," and the towering scope of splintered love song "Hammer." As a whole, the resultant body of work is more than just a rare Venn diagram centrepiece of the respective Horse Album Covers and Dog Album Covers canons: Salmena has effectively sold the world— and herself — on who she is as an artist, without limitations.