In the wake of racial reckoning, singer/producer Sasami tackles metal music

POP/ROCK

Sasami, "Squeeze" (Domino)

For most of 2020, Sasami didn't feel like it was an appropriate time for her to make music. A year after the Los Angeles singer/producer released her self-titled debut, a collection of electro-inflected indie rock, the pandemic was raging and a racial reckoning was provoking important questions. She wanted to take on white male music, specifically metal.

"Squeeze" feels both darkly menacing and openly heartfelt. Sasami assumes the roles of tormentor and tormented, contending with a world that can be emotionally overwhelming in so many ways.

After graduating from Eastman School of Music, Sasami, now 31, finally began writing her own songs in 2017 partly so she'd have practice material for producing music. The diaristic "Morning Comes" on her debut was the first song she ever wrote. With "Squeeze," she wanted to take a more dynamic approach to better suit her self-described "chaotic clown-y energy."

Though "Squeeze" may embrace genre signifiers like double kick drums and slap bass, it's far from a typical metal album. Her pulverizing cover of Daniel Johnston's "Sorry Entertainer" features an impassioned finger-tapped guitar solo and full-throated screaming, but as the music trails out, you can hear Sasami's resulting coughing fit.

Disparate influences pulse throughout the LP, like the glam rock boogie of "Make It Right," the swirling electronic textures on "Call Me Home" or the power ballad tendencies of "The Greatest" and "Not a Love Song." With its loud and proud acoustic guitar strumming, "Tried to Understand" provides one of the album's breeziest moments.

ERIC DUCKER, New York Times

Jack Harlow, "Nail Tech"

Last year Harlow went to No. 1 as the guest on Lil Nas X's "Industry Baby," and he's learned something from that experience. "Nail Tech" has echoes of that song's horns, and Harlow approaches the beat similarly, with imagistic rapping — "You ain't one of my dogs, why do you hound us?" — and a confidence that makes this song sound like a victory lap.

JON CARAMANICA, New York Times

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