Rahill’s ‘Flowers at Your Feet’ is a Sunny, Experimental-Pop Trip

You may already be familiar with the work of multi-disciplinary artist Rahill Jamalifard, a founding member of Brooklyn garage-rock faves Habibi. That familiarity, however, won’t likely prime you for the enjoyably avant-garde pop on Rahill’s debut solo LP, Flowers at Your Feet.

Through the development of Habibi’s music to her solo debut, the 2022 EP Sun Songs, Rahill has displayed a knack for alchemy, deftly fusing a wide range of influences — pop, rock and R&B soundscapes with melodies drawn from the American-Iranian household in which she was raised — into something totally unique. Flowers at Your Feet puts Rahill’s vast skillset on display, as the artist draws a variety of collaborators into her orbit for a collection of songs that, when listened to front to back, is a sunny, experimental-pop trip.

After album opener, “Healing,” a sub-two-minute piece of abstract expressionism that incorporates synthesizer ambience and found recordings, introduces a few of the motifs that will be sprinkled across the collection like sonic breadcrumbs, “I Smile For E” sets the journey in motion, an unhurried swarm of aux percussion, saxophone and keyboards surrounding the bellow of the track’s bass drum. The psychedelic, reggae-grounded “Tell Me” is one of the most enjoyable surprises on an record that’s full of revelations, while “Fables,” the album’s most uptempo offering, finds Rahill teaming with ‘90s art-rock icon Beck, singing over what sounds like an Odelay B-side. 

Collectively, the album’s fourteen tracks don’t demand you stay for the full-40 minutes as much as they carry you away. Layered with singular samples, charming melodies and captivating lyrics, Flowers at Your Feet is at once like nothing else and enthrallingly familiar.

You can hear new music from Rahill, as well as local, regional, national and international artists on our music discovery station The Independent 89.9 HD4. And you can follow our Fresh Squeeze playlist on Spotify to stream all the best new music, updated every month.