SASAMI crafts a daring, hot-blooded rock 'n' roll album on Squeeze
The Los Angeles singer-songwriter fearlessly dives into the deep end of the genre with her sophomore release

The second album from Los Angeles rocker SASAMI (a.k.a. Sasami Ashworth) could not differ more from her first. Those expecting a record similar to her grounded, meditative, and tender self-titled debut from 2019 will either be thoroughly disappointed or pleasantly surprised by the hardcore energy behind Squeeze. Here, she’s assertive and a little vindictive—and the music straight-up shreds. With her sophomore record, she’s avoided a slump by showing off her extensive range within the wide-open genre known as rock.
Ashworth opens up the album with the gnawing and sinister “Skin A Rat,” a song ferociously anti-establishment and sounding hungry for blood. The unsettlingly childlike lullaby in the beginning is cut off by a wall of sound: The snare comes down hard and her vocals pour out with the hiss of a snake. It’s a grisly sonic effect, SASAMI using her big musical boots to crush the capitalist rodents via her deep vocals and piercing wails. It suggests an album made to thrash.
Instead, immediately after, Squeeze begins to open up and shine. SASAMI’s vocals ring out clearly on “The Greatest,” without the garble of effects boasted by the opening track. It feels plucked from another time in rock, like the grungy ’90s hits of Alanis Morissette or The Cranberries, in a way that feels classic yet new thanks to SASAMI’s touch.“The Greatest” peaks with a giant triumphant build, which opens up to a raucous guitar solo. A trace of the ’90s surfaces once again with “Call Me Home,” SASAMI’s stab at writing, as she says, a “Sheryl Crow-inspired” song. Gentle yet powerful, it’s about having too much of a good thing—and sometimes needing to throw some dynamite on your life and watch it blow up. Her vocals pour out like a torrent of reassuring emotion while psychedelic synths swirl and envelop the listener.