SASAMI Squeezes a fan out of me off of live show
What I saw was three huge men walk on stage in cloaks as if I was about to watch doom metal, followed by a woman dressed the same way joining them to then stand together and put on one of the most insane shows I had seen since live music returned last year, maybe ever. This was nothing like I remembered from the singles. This woman was amped up, screaming her head off and told the crowd several times that the city we were from, Hell all of New England, could “get fucked.” I think I even remember her motioning for a man in the crowd to approach the stage only to shove or kick him away. All this and the music was good. Like really good. So good in fact that I wanted to take it home. I approached the merch booth and there she was, only now she was all smiles, holding up a notesapp apology on her phone that she had totally lost her voice and couldn’t talk. I bought the vinyl for Squeeze and handed her pre-counted exact change in all singles (restaurant day job, don’t judge me) and she didn’t even count it! Just trusted me that it was all there. I didn’t expect her to tell me to fuck myself but this was so different from the woman I just saw on stage. The next day I put it on my turntable and listened. This is that record and I am so glad I picked it up.
At the start of the record you are presented with a song that immediately demonstrates the back and forth chaos of the whole project in “Skin a Rat.” In just two and a half minutes SASAMI goes through three different variations of this presentation. First, a child sings what will later be a baroque bridge surrounded by a metal basework. While the riffs here are very traditional, they also scale down for this sense of descending, something that is used more and more as the record goes on. The vocals are rather muddled, and while that’s not uncommon in heavy genres, I like when it's more embraced, especially by women in these spaces. Afterall, we’re talking about a fanbase that thinks female vocalists are inherently a gimmick. Metal fans have a certain tendency to like things clean and produced lightly and live as possible, so I’m always up to throw a middle finger to them too. It really goes with my impression of SASAMI based on that live performance.
“Call Me Home,” to me, is the best song on the entire record. On this one there’s this sense and emotion of moving fast despite how laid back the cut actually is. In contrast to “The Greatest” SASAMI is talking about being torn between this life of travel and music and getting a “real job and a fake smile,” something she clearly isn’t enthused about, however, on this path at least she could find someone to share it with. A lot of the lyricism here gives me the sensation of running away, that and the keys in the background of the mix. They sound almost like the OST to a platformer in space and add such a sense of urgency to the emotion behind everything. It really mirrors this need presented to make your life move faster than the speed of slowing down. Not that we’re at the end but it was the moment I understood what made this record work so well. It’s the thoughts behind each emotion, what those mean sonically and what needs to take place to move forward in that direction.
“Tried to Understand” is a true old rockstar song, almost country rock in its ways, and presents this very “why am I crying in the club right now?” themes with lyrics that literally state;
“You’re dancing around in an empty club with tears falling out of your eyes,
You’re spinning like a penny on the ground and around and around you go.”
The main chorus of the song gets bigger and grander each time it hits with louder percussion and backing vocals that get stronger and louder with each passing use. It also is the track that made me appreciate that SASAMI was getting better at these presentations before your ears just on the run time of this record.
As I started to say earlier, up to this point this record has been thematically very back and forth. On each track we go from this eerie, metal and industrial side to these rock and roll and blues inspired tracks. They don’t just bleed into each other on each new song, they play back and forth, track by track like two EPs taking turns clashing against one another. So it’s incredible that the biggest curveball we can throw at this point is to not throw one at all. On “Make it Right” the mood does not truly change from the rock and roll side and yet it also sort of meets at the intersection of these two clashing ideas. While a thinly veiled country rock song, “Right” is also produced like an industrial cut. The main riff could be heard on any rock radio station but it's also very muddled in contrast to such clean lead vocals. The hook, like most of the metal cuts on the record, is literally just the title of the song.
“Sorry Entertainer” is the embodiment of everything I saw in real time at a SASAMI set. We have officially made it past the intersection of ideas and all bets are off, she’s free to show off all her sides in any way she wishes. Ironic to the title, this is the biggest flex of a track yet. The instrumental performance has no brakes in being the grandest metal performance on the record. She’s straight up showing off on her vocal delivery using all the tricks of a stereotypical metal performer, screams, shouts, singing softly, even whispering in your ear. I remember a lot of screaming live but there’s not a lot of it on record, so it means something when it comes up. By the end of the song, she’s gotten so into this performance that she starts choking on it. It’s the ultimate form of her showmanship and it’s really off the wall yet so it’s so well thought out in every conceivable way.
The last two tracks, “Feminine Water Turmoil” as well as “Not a Love Song” are combined in presentation and on the bluesier side of the record with a string driven structure. Here, we are using these big band inspired harmonies to emulate very angelic imagery. If “Sorry Entertainer” is the biggest rock-star energized track for the heavy side of the record, this is its equivalent on the other side. While I don’t love this track as an outro to the entire record, I do believe it demonstrates that she can have that mentality on and off stage. Yes, a lot of these songs were grander, more in your face in a live setting, but SASAMI can channel that full-force on recording just as well. I really enjoy the themes presented here as life being more beautiful than you pigeonhole it to be, even when you pigeonhole it to be beautiful;
“It’s not a love song, just a beautiful sound.
It’s not a photograph, just a beautiful sight.”
Looping back, the reason I don’t love this as a closer is because I wish a track like “Make it Right,” where the two worlds of SASAMI’s artistry collided was what took us out here. Thematically I’m not arguing that this doesn’t have any sense of finality to it but I think we maybe could have closed things a bit better.
What I walk away from this record, what I ultimately love about it is that, there is a throughline, it just isn’t a straight line. To a certain point there are connecting sounds and genres, but those connections come on every other track as opposed to a traditional sequencing. Not getting so much of the same thing at the same time keeps things fresh and compelling. It’s easy to say these two moods could be presented separately like my EP comment above, but that wasn’t quite what I meant. On tracks like “Make it Right,” it’s made right, the narrative really comes together. When you’re listening to over one-hundred tracks a week, it’s very hard to see the scope of an artist. Like I said, I skipped this record on release because I wasn’t interested. I will fully admit I saw nothing in any of these songs individually. All together? I didn’t even skip a single song in the track-by-track, I can’t even say that for my favorite record of the year so far, which I discussed two weeks ago. I didn’t because there is something exciting about each and every one of these songs. While this isn’t my favorite record of the year, while it may not even be in my top ten of the year come December, I can safely say Squeeze is a record worth listening to. It gives you something to turn your head to the entire playtime.
As I conclude this review I’d like to do something I’d never done before and thank a few people. I’d first like to thank my loving partner, Abby, who has helped on this blog before. Abby is always listening to hundreds of hours of music that I want to check out with me, going with me to shows and so much more that keeps me inspired to write about music that moves me. The second thank you goes to my dear friend Madeline. She is an incredible writer and podcaster in her own right and we are constantly discussing each other's work, being mutual consultants and being more or less mutual biggest fans of each other's output. I write about a lot of music but it isn’t often that what I share resonates with those around me but those two were really impressed with this record as much as I was so I wanted to shout them out as well as go a little extra hard on songs I knew were their favorites. I’d also like to shout out my local venue, Fete Music Hall, in Providence, RI. That’s where I went to see this particular show. Live music is important for the community at large of course and could really use your support right now so if you can, try to attend shows in your area to keep things alive. Had I not gone to see a band I liked then also gave all three bands playing my full time we wouldn’t even have arrived at this review being written. I will link places you can find everyone mentioned below and we will review the new Soccer Mommy record when it releases later this summer as well.
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