Sawayama
by Rina Sawayama

a stupidly strong debut album that smashes genres and has the best swagger from track to track. amazing lyricism, and a really exciting full-length offering from a wicked new star.

From Hayden TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/21/2020 14:38 | #250312 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

My rating comes with the note that I do enjoy some songs on here (Comme Des Garçons and Akasaka Sad in particular), but there's some very grating pop-grunge cuts on here that I don't think help clarify what direction Rina wants to go in at all. Doesn't help that smushed within the tracklist are some flat-out immature songs I'm sure she'll regret in time.

It's a weird album. There's this uncomfortable push to sound human that makes Rina sound more robotic than anything else. Still going to keep an eye on her, but hoping she swings a different way on her next project.

From LedZep TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/23/2020 19:00 | #250442 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Have to agree with Hayden here. As a disclaimer, I love metal and grunge, and in theory I'd love to hear a good alternative metal/pop combination. But this album is not it. A mishmash of genres here doesn't make for a fun listen, similar to the Poppy record earlier this year. I admire both of these young pop stars, love their eccentricity and ambition, but neither has made a satisfying record. And it's not only because of metal elements, although those bothered me the most.

Sawayama can write a good song, and she doesn't necessarily have to go in a "safer" direction writing more pop tunes, but she has to find a way to make a coherent album out of all those experiments. Either that or I just don't like pop metal crossovers at all, and I'm not ready to admit that just yet.

Paradisin' was great though, and several other songs were nice.

'Sawayama" has a lot of the 2000's in it. The nu-metal guitars and dance-pop tracks are a flashback at first, but with time I am reminded of my mixed feelings on those sounds. The tracks feel a bit too similar at times. A lot of the album concepts are memorable in theory( beauty standards, one sided friendships, etc.) but the writing just doesn't flesh them out enough. On a more positive note, I think Rina's vocal performance is enjoyable and lush. The album just needs something more.

From HoldenM TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/19/2020 19:06 | #262944 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

An album I more appreciate than like. Some of it is a little too mawkish for my taste, and the songwriting is super hit and miss. But it's a phenomenal display of influences and styles that come together with surprising consistency. I can't wait to see what Sawayama does next.