More often than not, albums of empowerment are hard terrains to navigate. It’s like trawling through a rainforest teeming with deadly snakes, a swamp marred with invisible quagmires, or a perilous mountain range stacked high with frozen bodies. The line between idealisation and delusion can become increasingly blurred, and there’s always the risk that self-assured assertions creep into unsolicited preaching.
Thankfully, ‘Blood On the Silver Screen’ isn’t an album set out to persuade or alter. At its heart, it’s a record dappled with melancholy: nostalgia, longing, self-loathing. But there’s an unwavering pulse of hope, of joy, of learning to be ruthlessly carefree.
Opener ‘Slugger’ pays homage to Dolly Parton with its chorus: “Now I’m cry cry crying, like Dolly from ‘9 to 5”. Although there’s outright sadness imbued throughout the track, it’s never pitiful. The ebullient synths, Sasami’s rich, warm vocals, and tactful, subtle self-criticism make sure of that. “So I probably should have seen it coming,” she sighs, and continues the high-speed, high-octane track without taking a second to breathe.
Actually, there’s very little breathing time in ‘Blood On The Silver Screen’. ‘I’ll Be Gone’ follows the same steady danceable percussion as ‘Slugger’ after the muted breakup track ‘Just Be Friends’. After the brief contemplation of ‘Just Be Friends’, ‘I’ll Be Gone’ brings back the immutable challenge of learning to move on; “it’s so tragicomic each time”, Sasami muses, frustrated with her typical yearn-and-dispose cycle. In grunge-tinged standout ‘For The Weekend’, Sasami is apologetic and self-aware: “Can we just pretend? ‘Cause I’m only in love for the weekend.”
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Nevertheless, there are some moments of hope: through slow, thoughtful heavy guitars and synths, ‘Figure It Out’ has Sasami asserting she’ll always protect her love. Album closer—and arguably the best track—‘The Seed’ is built over a raw guitar loop and Sasami’s most versatile vocal performance thus far. Sasami empowers herself to feel her emotions, promising to care for her lover and take away their pain, with layered harmonies and 2000’s-inspired grungy guitars.
Although the record follows the cycle of making mistakes yet learning from them, ‘In Love With a Memory’ seems to undo all that progress. The undulating synth track, an album standout regardless, is overflowing with nostalgia that borders on pining, but the last line “That’s all right, all right” closes the track with acceptance and certainty.
‘Blood On the Silver Screen’ is a confessional, raw body of work that lays out problems and solutions, with the power to change its own future. While it has fewer standout moments than Squeeze and self-titled debut SASAMI, there are still moments of beauty: ‘The Seed’, ‘Slugger’, ‘For the Weekend’ and Clairo-featured ‘In Love With A Memory’, in particular. However, there’s still something to love in every track; this is certainly a lyric-forward record for the musers. ‘Blood On the Silver Screen’ must be listened to as it was conceived: with deep thought, consideration, and empowerment.
7/10
Words: Erin Bashford
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