SASAMI – “Squeeze” (2022)
Domino Records
Review by Warren Mayocchi
Sasami Ashworth follows her debut album from 2019 with “Squeeze”. What a change the world has seen in the years between the bookends these albums create! The album cover is inspired by the Nure-Onna folk legend which stars a snake-bodied creature with a woman’s head. The creature judges the people it meets and deals with them according to judgment.
There is a duality of nurture and destruction in the tale. That it is also present in the many music videos which can be found for tracks on “Squeeze”. The idea goes deeper, as listening to the entire album will reveal.
“Make It Right” is a great new-fashioned rock song with a foot-tapping beat, sing-a-long chorus, and catchy riff. Before the music video for “Make It Right”, we had the nostalgic indie vibe of “The Greatest”. Whose video features visual tributes to KISS. Viewing the videos it would be difficult to attribute them to the same artist. But here we are with a whole album to decipher.
It opens with “Skin a Rat” which is as interesting an introduction as the title and album cover suggest. “Say It” gives us a Sheryl Crow tone with an industrial bend. Then, “Call Me Home” sounds a little like a ballad that could have been done by Hole. Eclectic is already a good description for “Squeeze”. Punk-like the next track fits the song trend as “Need It to Work” blasts out a repetitive vocal and instrumental.
What should come next is the acoustic guitar-driven “Tried to Understand”. This is my least like the track on the album. Because the chorus line is over abused, sickly sweet quickly, and grating by the end of the song. Back into the groove “Make It Right” is evocative of several bands from the late-Sixties. That they merely transitioned from simple rock toward a heavier or psychedelic sound. It is the next song that confirms “Squeeze” as a genre morphing and time-traveling joyride.
“Sorry Entertainer” melds Henry Mancini‘s “Peter Gunn Theme” with lyrics (the original being an instrumental). Then, it molds it in toward a heavier, fuzzier, screaming song. After a couple of shorter mood pieces, the album concludes with “Not a Love Song”. Indeed, a slower track with classical/rock backing and a melancholy feel.
- Skin A Rat
- The Greatest
- Say It
- Call Me Home
- Need It To Work
- Tried To Understand
- Make It Right
- Sorry Entertainer
- Squeeze (feat. No Home)
- Feminine Water Turmoil
- Not A Love Song