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REVIEW: Rina Sawayama – ‘SAWAYAMA’ (Dirty Hit)

8/10

In a sentence:

Combining entertaining, brilliantly produced bangers with insightful songwriting, ‘SAWAYAMA’ is one of the best pop debuts of 2020.

With her long-awaited debut studio album SAWAYAMA, Rina Sawayama yet again brings us an excellent, grand fusion of ‘00s pop and rock with a fresh aftertaste, discussing intergenerational pain and its side effects recounting personal experiences enveloped in sizzling production. We’ve been served quite a sizeable platter of standout pop over the last few weeks, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia warming us up, and Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters seriously ruffling some feathers. With her new release, Rina joins these ranks, delivering an album that glistens with delicious audio production and serves up quality pop song one after another, or banger after banger, so to speak.

Establishing herself as a master of turning pop clichés of the past into newfound ear candy with her 2017 EP RINA, it was only expected that SAWAYAMA would continue with this vision, referencing the ‘uncool’ nu-metal and the pop of Britney Spears all at the same time with a personal ‘dissertation’ of the everyday sources of pain in her life, whether it’d be related to family, friends, or capitalism – an under-the-rug cultural commentary through a personal prism.

Surprising or not, Rina’s pop on SAWAYAMA is personally political. The bombastic ‘Dynasty’ establishes the record’s message of personal truth, introducing her thesis of breaking the intergenerational pain chain, and is followed by the tongue-in-cheek ‘XS’ where our everyday obsession with opulence and amassing social cred in shiny new things is condensed into super-pop with an ear worm chorus adorned with abrasive guitar riffs, a parody of ourselves in the midst of an environmental emergency, one even more apparent on ‘Fuck This World (Interlude)’. ‘STFU!’ follows, launching into unabashed, cold-water-in-your-face nu-metal, a welcome tasty shock that speaks of Rina’s experiences being Japanese-British, dealing with back-handed microaggressions concerning her cultural identity throughout her life, inviting people who should know better to “Shut the fuck up”.

Music video for ‘XS’

Changing gears, ‘Comme Des Garҫons (Like The Boys)’ thumps with a sleazy bass, Rina wrapping masculine tropes of confidence and power into a dancefloor hit. With ‘Akasaka Sad’ she yet again converts personal insecurities into a catchy pop song, discussing depression and imposter syndrome, feeling like she doesn’t fit in neither in London nor Tokyo. Such personal tales are informed by years of therapy about which Rina has spoken about, unravelling the emotional confusion that follows one after parental separation, cultural trauma and coming of age.

Such is so that the second part of SAWAYAMA slows down just a bit (though ‘Who’s Gonna Save U Now?’ threatens with its arena pop rock attack), ‘Bad Friend’ relaxing into more of a ballad pace, recalling the ever-so-familiar realisation that friends you once called dear are no longer so, you being completely out of touch with their reality, distracted by your own everyday. ‘Chosen Family’ matches this, appreciating the families we form separate from our parents, in friends and partners that moulds us into adults we become only through self-reflection that’s guided by our understanding listeners. Rina has been outspoken about the importance of friends and her audience, lovingly called Pixels, many times before, and such an homage is earnest and endearing, even if at times a bit corny as the squeaky guitar solo wails in the background, but that’s what pop requires, and it’s heartwarming and touching nonetheless.

Music video for ‘STFU!’

Such personal realisations sprinkled with pop writing brilliance is what sets apart Rina Sawayama’s album from being ‘good’ to being ‘great’. A feat of production and songwriting, SAWAYAMA is exciting and fresh, comforting and scary at the same time, a satisfying listen serving the function of both entertaining pop music and emotionally intelligent songwriting, a confident personal statement of the artist aiming for connection to her familial and cultural roots as well as personal transformation. (8/10) (Aiste Samuchovaite)

Listen to SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!

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