CD of The Week

SASAMI - Blood On The Silver Screen (Domino)

Call her what you will (ex-music teacher, classically trained French Horn player, former member of Cherry Glazerr, film and commercial music composer), Sasami Ashworth has taken her experiences, influences, and the varied output of her two previous solo efforts and placed them into the indie-pop blender. The end result is a deliciously vicious SASAMI album that subverts expectations and explores the depths of painful relationships with others and the self. On Blood On The Silver Screen, her follow-up to 2022’s foray into nu-metal (Squeeze), Jennifer Decilveo (Phantogram, Lucius) co-produces alongside Sasami on most of these 13 tracks; their combined affinity for synth and electro music shines brightly throughout, but thankfully the guitars are never too far out of reach. 

The album opens with the danceable, biting “Slugger,” one of the singles that premiered last year. Starting off with the lyric “I’m such a Cancer” might make the listener think she’s a toxic partner, but astrologically (she was born June 23rd), it makes more sense as she continues: “I wish I had the answer, I’m quite a mess now.” Cancers are strong creative types and notoriously hopeful/less romantics, but also overly emotional and insecure. Heartbreak is painful, and even debilitating as she further laments: “Whoever said it's better to have loved and to lost, than to not have loved at all, Should just shut up forever.” This theme continues on “In Love With A Memory” featuring vocals from Clairo and co-production by Rostam. Influenced by watching her mother sing in smoky Korean karaoke rooms, this track slinks and oozes through more explorations of lost love(s). On the aggressively poppy “Possessed,” Sasami professes newfound freedom with no regrets, well maybe: “I'm running with the devil, and tonight I'm going faster, and if this is a test, I only have wrong answers.”

The aforementioned guitars kick off and drive the groovy “Love Makes You Do Crazy Things,” an energetic yet emotional song that explores the many ways that the title expresses. Sasami wears her synth-pop influences on her sleeve during “I’ll Be Gone,” an empowering, upbeat song that could easily be the next single, and on the melodic and moody “Just Be Friends” she sonically channels her debut self-titled album with some confessional lyrics about the difficulties of moving on.

“Honeycrash” was the first single released for the album and introduced us to the overall theatrical statement of Blood On The Silver Screen. It’s another highly evolved step as she shapeshifts her way through the indie-pop atmosphere. On the final Rostam-produced track “The Seed,” Sasami reveals that “Love and pain, they’re intertwined,” firmly putting the pin in the butterfly on display in this shadowbox of passionate, desperate outpouring.

SASAMI returns to Philadelphia at Underground Arts on Saturday, May 3rd.
Review by Dave Lindquist