Sawayama

Sawayama
A woman with gold makeup has her hands folded together.
Digital cover. The cover of the physical edition features the title on the image's upper side.
Studio album by
Rina Sawayama
Released17 April 2020 (2020-04-17)
Recorded2018–2019
Studio
  • Heavy Duty Studios (Los Angeles)
  • DH00270 (London)
  • Shelter Studios (London)
Genre
Length43:34
Language
  • English
  • Japanese
LabelDirty Hit, Avex Trax
Producer
Rina Sawayama chronology
Rina
(2017) 		Sawayama
(2020) 		Sawayama Remixed
(2020)
Singles from Sawayama
  1. "STFU!"
    Released: 22 November 2019
  2. "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)"
    Released: 17 January 2020
  3. "XS"
    Released: 2 March 2020
  4. "Chosen Family"
    Released: 3 April 2020
  5. "Bad Friend"
    Released: 15 April 2020[1]

Sawayama is the debut studio album by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. It was released on 17 April 2020 by Dirty Hit. The follow-up to her self-released debut EP Rina (2017), it received widespread acclaim from music critics, specifically towards the wide variety of music genres used, as well as its Y2K nostalgia and "intelligent" nature. Described by Sawayama herself as being "about family and identity", she lyrically explores personal experiences from both her childhood and adulthood.[2][3][4]

Sawayama was primarily produced by Clarence Clarity and written by Sawayama, with additional work from musicians such as Danny L Harle, Kyle Shearer, Jonathan Gilmore, Bram Inscore and Lauren Aquilina among others. Musically, the album is influenced by 2000s mainstream pop, nu metal, rock, R&B, and dance-pop among other genres.[5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ Kenneally, Cerys (15 April 2020). "Rina Sawayama to release new single "Bad Friend" tonight". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  2. ^ Perez, Miguel (21 April 2020). "Rina Sawayama Embraces The Pain On Her Beautifully Messy Debut". NPR. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  3. ^ Blum, Dani (12 March 2020). "Rina Sawayama on Her Wildly Eclectic and Disarmingly Personal Debut Album". Pitchfork. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "If you were forced to describe her debut as succinctly as possible, you’d probably opt for a pop/R&B/nu-metal hybrid with a dose of stadium-rock bombast"
  6. ^ "Sawayama visits moments throughout pop, rock, and metal’s past but rarely settles for simple pastiche."
  7. ^ "Balancing references with innovation is often a slippery slope, but on SAWAYAMA, the pop and R&B influences of the early aughts gleam alongside more modern genre-mixing...”
  8. ^ "The glossy, synthesized pop from 2017's Rina that put her on the map is still present, but supported now by grungy, dirty nu-metal sounds, like chunky guitar riffs and slamming drum riffs."