Perspicacious and personal, cool and colossally enjoyable, Sawayama is both a triumph over trauma and a paean to the power of effervescent pop in practically all its forms.
SAWAYAMA pushes the boundaries of what pop music can be, discussing complex and intimate topics with insight and freshness.
Raw artistry paired with rich heritage makes for a magnificent, spine-tingling first album for Rina Sawayama.
Sawayama is perhaps the first clear-cut pop album of serious importance to come out of the Anglosphere this year.
Sawayama is an exhilarating reminder of a bygone time when boy bands ruled all and commercialism ruled the boy bands. That era is long gone, but that particular brand of maximalist pop is back, only better now than before.
On this stunning debut, Sawayama captures Dua Lipa's future nostalgia and Poppy's metal-meets-pop savvy, rightfully making it her own with more depth, bigger thrills, and a limitless palette.
She’s created a riveting throwback to the Noughties with her debut album, which is in equal parts nostalgic and futuristic.
On an album with a lot to unpack, Sawayama is boldly eclectic and a statement piece from an artist not willing to conform, instead dedicated to nudge the boundaries of pop music.
Rina’s mini album may have marked her out as one to watch, but SAWAYAMA stakes her claim as one of the boldest voices in pop today.
Overall SAWAYAMA is a fantastic album with very high highs that make the other tracks seem dimmer in comparison. There are no bad tracks on this album and it’s a lot of fun to listen to from start to finish, however it could have been a masterpiece with a little selective editing in the second half.
Accelerating the maximalism of her 2017 mini-album RINA, SAWAYAMA is packed with sugary, sinister pop fantasies.
This is a carefully crafted, complex pop record that benefits from the production contributions of industry heavyweights like Nicole Morier (Britney), but undeniably it’s the new-fangled delivery and star appeal of Rina Sawayama that gives this album its sparkling essence.
While there are some tracks that could have been expended, that just wouldn’t be Rina’s style. She’s here to express her excessive, melodramatic, fun-loving, pain-harbouring persona in every single different way she can, without holding anything back – and SAWAYAMA should be celebrated for that.
That she’s been brave enough to excavate the arguably dated sounds of her youth for a modern re-versioning on her debut is testament to her bold character and vision. SAWAYAMA is Rina’s playbook; she makes music she feels like making.
Rina Sawayama is the best thing to happen to pop music since FKA twigs. No artist has me anticipating their next move more than Rina. Her "HYPERPOP" playlist on spotify is awesome too!
May the lord PLEASE bless Miss Sawayama with a viral Tik Tok hit so she can chart and receive the Grammy nominations she deserves. This shit is so powerful.
SAWAYAMA is a lively contemporary pop album, which has things to tell us, because behind the superstar and fairy-tale aesthetics, we feel a lot this human side.
To be perfectly honest, although the balance sheet of this album is positive when I think about it objectively, it's not the type of music that really makes me vibrate. A bit like Poppy's last album (although it's in a different register), I saw and felt many similar things on SAWAYAMA, that is to say a rather atypical character ... read more
1 | Dynasty 3:08 | 92 |
2 | XS 3:21 | 95 |
3 | STFU! 3:23 | 90 |
4 | Comme Des Garçons (Like the Boys) 3:01 | 88 |
5 | Akasaka Sad 3:02 | 87 |
6 | Paradisin' 3:06 | 85 |
7 | Love Me 4 Me 3:12 | 85 |
8 | Bad Friend 3:28 | 88 |
9 | Fuck This World (Interlude) 2:45 | 83 |
10 | Who's Gonna Save U Now 3:21 | 89 |
11 | Tokyo Love Hotel 4:27 | 86 |
12 | Chosen Family 4:08 | 84 |
13 | Snakeskin 3:12 | 86 |
#1 | / | Dork |
#1 | / | Gigwise |
#1 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
#2 | / | Dazed |
#2 | / | The New York Times: Jon Caramanica |
#2 | / | USA Today |
#3 | / | Rough Trade |
#3 | / | The Guardian |
#3 | / | The Young Folks |
#4 | / | GQ [UK] |