Overview

Rina Sawayama is an English musician. She released several singles through 2012-2016. From 2016 onwards she has worked with Clarence Clarity (who has produced nearly all of her songs recently), and release RINA, her self-titled EP in 2017.

RINA

Brilliantly arranged and featuring production from Clarence Clarity and Hoost, RINA is an album that delves with social anxiety and isolation in the Internet age. Songs like Tunnel Vision, with Shamir, narrate the tribulations of online dating.

Spinning planes

Relationships, going down the drain


While the spatial, nocturnal, and above all, dreamy interlude (which sets the bar very high for interludes to come) Through The Wire, reinforces the idea of depression that the lyrics detail using phone samples and melancholic synths.

I’ll keep checking you out from my bedroom

I’ll keep feeling your arms through a screen

I’ll keep filling you in on my movements

I’ll keep being the girl that you see

Through the wire

But ballads are not the only way in which this theme is expressed. 10-20-40 is an a’la Bloc Party indie rock song that talks about drug abuse in a quasi romantic way. I particularly like the bridge:

The less you feel, the more you know

A reason to leave me in a cruise control

A little white pill will take me back,

I hope you understand is my last resort,

I’ve one it all

However, this album is also about self growth and self appreciation. Tracks like Ordinary Superstar meditate on Rina’s status as a public figure, but also reinterprets what a “superstar” should be in the information age:

Don’t you wanna be ordinary with me?

And Take Me as I Am, with an explosive chorus and top-tier production (thank you Clarence, very cool!) pays homage to Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and 2000s pop while at the same time proposing a looser, more dynamic structure. To me, the bridge of this song is one of the brightest moments of 2010s pop.