Sawayama

For the singer, see Rina Sawayama.

Sawayama
Studio album by Rina Sawayama
Release Date	17 April 2020 4 December 2020 (Deluxe)
Recorded	Spring 2017 – Autumn 2019
Studio	Heavy Duty Studios (Los Angeles, California, United States) DH00270 Shelter Studios (London, United Kingdom)
Genre	Pop, R&B, Rock
Length	43:34 82:00 (Deluxe)
Label	Dirty Hit
Producer(s)	Clarence Clarity, Rina Sawayama, Kyle Shearer, Jonathan Gilmore, Bram Inscore, Salute, Danny L. Harle
Chronology
Previous	Rina (2017)
Current	Sawayama (2020)
Next	Hold the Girl (2022)
Singles
"STFU!" Released: 22 November 2019 "Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" Released: 17 January 2020 "XS" Released: 2 March 2020 "Chosen Family" Released: 3 April 2020 "Bad Friend" Released: 15 April 2020

Sawayama (stylised in all caps) is the debut studio album by Rina Sawayama, released on 17 April 2020. It is a follow up to her independently released debut mini album Rina. The album received widespread acclaim from music critics, achieving an aggregate score of 90/100 on Metacritic.

A deluxe edition of the album was released on 4 December 2020. The deluxe edition features a bonus disc with eleven tracks, including two unreleased songs and The 1975's "Love It If We Made It" cover.

Background

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 (for me British and Japanese), 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 (based on both Critic and User reviews).

"Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" 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, California 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.

"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 favorite 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 favorite 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.

Tour

Sawayama (centre) during the Dynasty Tour at the Academy in Dublin, Ireland on 8 November 2021. (Photo by Zyanya Lorenzo)

Main article: The Dynasty Tour

On 8 November 2021, Sawayama embarked to her Dynasty Tour in Dublin, Ireland, which concluded on 13 May 2022. Hana and Ama Jones served as the opening acts for the tour.

The tour was originally set to begin on April 24, 2020 in Los Angeles and to conclude on May 21, 2021; however, due to fears from COVID-19, all of the original planned dates were canceled or postponed for 2021, commencing on 8 November in Dublin, Ireland and concluding on 9 May 2022 in New York City, U.S. Due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in Europe, the second European leg from 11 March to 23 March was canceled. In February 2022, Sawayama announced some updates on the North American leg with two new shows and some venues upgraded.

The Dynasty Tour was met with critical acclaim and most of the dates were sold out.

Artwork

Sawayama revealed the album's official artwork on 17 January 2020 through her social media.

The album artwork was shot by Hendrik Schneider, with creative direction handled by Ben Ditto and Samuel Burgess-Johnson. Sawayama was styled by Danielle Emerson.

Digital cover

Physical cover, featuring the album title at the top.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	83/100
AnyDecentMusic?	8.2/10
Metacritic	89/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	9/10
Consequence of Sound	A-
DIY
Gigwise
The Independent
The Line of Best Fit	9/10
Loud and Quiet	7/10
NME
Pitchfork	7.7/10
Q
Rolling Stone
The Skinny

Upon release, Sayawama received widespread acclaim from music critics. Aggregator 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, indicating "universal acclaim". The album was rated an 8.2 out of 10 on aggregator AnyDecentMusic?.

The Line of Best Fit writer Erin Bashford gave it 9 out of 10 stars and 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". He also praised Sawayama's "strong and emotional vocals" and "tak[ing] motifs and styles from every genre and era and curat[ing] something that feels futuristic". He summed up his 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 announced that Sawayama "is 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."

Year-end lists

Publication	Accolade	Rank	Ref.
Billboard	Billboard's 50 Best Albums of 2020 – Mid-Year	N/A
The Guardian	The best albums of 2020 so far	N/A
Paste	Paste's 25 Best Albums of 2020 – Mid-Year	17
Rolling Stone	The 50 Best Albums of 2020 So Far	N/A
Slant	The Best Albums of 2020 (So Far)	N/A
Uproxx	The Best Albums Of 2020 So Far	25
What Hi-Fi?	20 of the best albums of 2020	N/A

Awards and nominations

Year	Organization	Award	Result	Ref.
2020	Wowie Awards	Outstanding Album or EP	Nominated

Deluxe edition

A deluxe edition of Sawayama was released on 4 December 2020. The deluxe edition features a second disc with 11 tracks, including two bonus tracks, a cover, a live, three acoustics, and three remixes.

Sawayama Remixed

On 10 November 2020, to celebrate the success of Sawayama, Dirty Hit and Rough Trade presented Sawayama Remixed, a super exclusive limited edition 12” vinyl EP remix, featuring remixes and covers of Rina including Lady Gaga's "Dance In The Dark" and a new remix of "Bad Friend", as well as Rina's cover of The 1975's "Love It If We Made It" for The Face.

Track listing

Standard edition
#	Title	Length
1.	"Dynasty"	3:08
2.	"XS"	3:21
3.	"STFU!"	3:23
4.	"Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)"	3:01
5.	"Akasaka Sad"	3:02
6.	"Paradisin'"	3:06
7.	"Love Me 4 Me"	3:12
8.	"Bad Friend"	3:28
9.	"Fuck This World (Interlude)"	2:45
10.	"Who's Gonna Save U Now?"	3:21
11.	"Tokyo Love Hotel"	4:27
12.	"Chosen Family"	4:08
13.	"Snakeskin"	3:12
Total length:		43:34

Japanese edition (bonus track)
#	Title	Writer(s)	Length
14.	"Tokyo Takeover"	Justin Tailor, Sawayama	3:27
Total length:			47:01

Deluxe edition (bonus disc)
#	Title	Length
1.	"Lucid"	3:38
2.	"We Out Here"	2:57
3.	"Bees & Honey"	1:46
4.	"Love It If We Made It"	4:04
5.	"XS" (live)	3:43
6.	"STFU!" (acoustic)	3:32
7.	"Bad Friend" (acoustic)	3:29
8.	"Chosen Family" (acoustic)	4:05
9.	"Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" (Remix) (featuring Pabllo Vittar)	3:42
10.	"XS" (Remix) (featuring Bree Runway)	3:22
11.	"Bad Friend" (Dream Wife Remix)	4:14

2021 Deluxe edition (bonus disc)
#	Title	Length
1.	"Lucid"	3:38
2.	"Chosen Family" (with Elton John)	4:39
3.	"We Out Here"	2:57
4.	"Bees & Honey"	1:46
5.	"Love It If We Made It"	4:04
6.	"XS" (live)	3:43
7.	"STFU!" (acoustic)	3:32
8.	"Bad Friend" (acoustic)	3:29
9.	"Chosen Family" (acoustic)	4:05
10.	"Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" (Remix) (featuring Pabllo Vittar)	3:42
11.	"XS" (Remix) (featuring Bree Runway)	3:22
12.	"Bad Friend" (Dream Wife Remix)	4:14

Sawayama Remixed
#	Title	Length
1.	"Dance In The Dark" (Lady Gaga cover)	3:45
2.	"Love It If We Made It" (The 1975 cover)	4:04
3.	"Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" (Bravo remix) (featuring Pabllo Vittar)	3:42
4.	"XS" (Bree Runway remix)	3:22
5.	"Bad Friend" (Dream Wife remix)	4:14

Cut Songs

Rina had wrote and recorded multiple songs from 2017 - 2019 with the intention of putting them on the album. This is the list of songs that were intended to be on the album, but were later cut from the final track listing.

• "Capital"
• "Haiku"
• "How We Were Then"
• "Mission: U"
• "Model Minority"
• "Proud"
• "Ready or Not"

Credits

• Musicians
• Technical
• Management and marketing

Rina Sawayama	lead vocals (all tracks), songwriting (all tracks), production (tracks 1–3, 5–11, 13)
Clarence Clarity	songwriting (1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 13), production (1–3, 5–11, 13), background vocals (3)
Kyle Shearer	songwriting (2), production (2, 8)
Bram Inscore	songwriting (4, 7), production (4)
Danny L. Harle	songwriting and production (12)
Nate Campany	songwriting (2)
Chris Lyon	songwriting (2)
Nicole Morier	songwriting (4, 7)
Johnny Latimer	songwriting (8, 10, 12, 13)
Rich Cooper	songwriting (10)
Lauren Aquilina	songwriting (11)
Oscar Sheller	songwriting (11)
Jonathan Gilmore	production (8)
Salute	production (13)
London Community Gospel Choir	choir vocals (1, 8, 10)
Additional instrument recording
Adam Hann	guitars (1, 2, 10)
Freddy Sheed	drums (1, 2, 10)

Spike Stent	mixing (1–5, 7, 8, 10, 11)
Tim Rowkins	mixing (2, 9, 12, 13)
Robin Schmidt	mastering at 24-96 Mastering, Germany

Will Frost	management
Chris Frase	A&R
Ben Ditto	artwork, layout
Hendrik Schneider	photography