Sawayama
Sawayama is the debut studio album by Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama, released on April 17, 2020 by record label Dirty Hit. A follow up to her independently released debut extended play Rina, the album features a total of thirteen tracks.
The album is mostly influenced by 2000s mainstream pop, nu metal, rock, R&B, and dance-pop, and was described as an album "about family and identity" by the singer herself. With Sawayama contributing lyrically to every track on the album, production for the record was largely handled by Clarence Clarity, featuring additional work from several producers such as Danny L Harle, Kyle Shearer, Jonathan Gilmore, Bram Inscore, Lauren Aquilina, and others. In addition to its release on digital and streaming release, the album also received three limited vinyl editions in store, with the only difference being the LP's vinyl colour.
Upon its release, Sawayama received critical acclaim from critics for its Y2K flashback and "intelligent" nature, further citing the album as "honest, genre-exploding self-portrait" of the singer. It was eventually included in several mid-year accolades by the critics, such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Uproxx.
The album attained success for Sawayama in her native country, becoming her second entry on the Japan Download Albums chart while being her first to enter the UK Albums Download and Scottish Albums Chart, peaking at number thirty and sixty on its first week, respectively. It also became Sawayama's first chart appearance in the United States, reaching number six on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart in its first week.
Background and promotion
Sawayama was recorded in London and Los Angeles. The artist herself stated in a press release that the album "is about family and identity. It's about understanding yourself in the context of two opposing cultures, what "belonging" means when home is an evolving concept, figuring out where you sit comfortably within and awkwardly outside of stereotypes, and ultimately trying to be ok with just being you, warts and all."Singles
"STFU!" was released as the lead single to the then-unannounced album on 21 November 2019. It is a nu metal track and represents a change in direction for Sawayama. The song premiered alongside the music video, which was co-directed by Ali Kurr and Sawayama herself. The single was met with critical acclaim, achieving a score of 82 on the website Album Of The Year."Comme des Garçons " was released as the second single to the album, along with the album pre-order, on 17 January 2020. It is a dance track written about female empowerment and the "rejection of traditional masculinity" by gay men. A remix of the track was released a month later, on 21 February 2020, featuring Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar and a new mix by Brabo. A music video featuring the original mix of the song was released to YouTube on 26 February 2020.
"XS" was released as the album's third official single on 2 March 2020. Sawayama stated that the track "is a song that mocks capitalism in a sinking world. Given that we all know global climate change is accelerating and human extinction is a very real possibility within our lifetime it seemed hilarious to me that brands were still coming out with new makeup palettes every month and public figures were doing a gigantic house tour of their gated property in Calabasas in the same week as doing a 'sad about Australian wildfires' Instagram post." This song received positive reviews, with Sofia Meyers of Euphoria stating that "if this is the direction she is going in, we're all in for what's next." A music video for the track was released on 17 April 2020. On 10 July 2020 the remix of the song came out in collaboration with the rapper Bree Runway, with the difference that the introduction is a little different from the original and the verse from Bree Runway replaces the second from the original version.
"Chosen Family" was the fourth single to be released from the album, on 3 April 2020. A week and a half before the official release date of the single, Sawayama leaked the chords and the lyrics to the track so that fans create their own versions of the track. The day after the single released, a video was uploaded to her official YouTube account featuring her favourite fan made versions of the track, and a tutorial of how to play the song on the guitar.
"Bad Friend" was released as the fifth single from the record on 15 April 2020, two days before the album's release. It was released following its debut on BBC Radio 1 the same day. Sawayama herself has described the track as her favourite from the album and stated that it was written after she found out through social media that her formerly close friend had just had a baby. A karaoke video for the track was released to YouTube on the same day as the release. The music video was released on 20 May. The song topped on the Tokio Hot 100.
Critical reception
Sawayama was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics. The album was rated an 8.3 out of 10 on the aggregator AnyDecentMusic?.The Line of Best Fit writer Erin Bashford called it a "deftly intelligent record takes personal and musical themes, and presents them in a way that doesn't feel like it's ever been done before". She also praised Sawayama's "strong and emotional vocals" and "tak motifs and styles from every genre and era and curat something that feels futuristic", summing up her review by stating "Rina Sawayama is one-of-a-kind, and her debut album certainly isn't going to be quiet about that". NME complimented Sawayama for being "an exciting first step from an artist unafraid to push pop into new realms". Writing for Pitchfork, Katherine St. Asaph described Sawayama as "a Y2K flashback that’s as reverent of Evanescence and Korn as it is of Britney and Christina." In June 2020, Elton John called the album "the strongest album of the year so far" and called album track "Bad Friend" "a song that Madonna would die for." Tom Hull was less impressed, giving it a B-minus and saying the "music aims for arena rock, sometimes with a bit of dissonance, but that doesn't help either."