By Kate Wiselogel, Contributor 

[Domino Recording Company; 2024] 

Rating: 8/10 

Singer-songwriter Sasami Ashworth, known by her stage name SASAMI, recently announced her third album, Blood On the Silver Screen, set for release on March 7, 2025. Upon announcing Blood On the Silver Screen, Ashworth released the album’s lead single, “Slugger.” “Slugger” was preceded by the excellent single “Honeycrash,” which was released in May 2024 and will also be featured on the album.

On previous records, Ashworth has experimented with the genres of dream-pop and indie-rock. However, in her announcement of Blood On the Silver Screen, Ashworth characterized her new work as being “a pop record about love.”

Listening to “Slugger,” the influence of pop sensibility on Ashworth’s new music is clear. In true pop form, the song’s explosive chorus is anchored by repetition. Ashworth repeats the phrases “my, my, my, my, my,” “cry-cry-crying” and “dy-dy-dying.”  

Repetition is also present in the song’s structure. “Slugger” begins and ends with the line “I’m such a cancer / I wish I had the answer, baby.” The effect of all of this repetition is that it emphasizes that, even by the end of the song, Ashworth still doesn’t seem to know how to deal with the situation that she’s in.  

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Another way that Ashworth channels pop music is through the use of various pop culture references throughout “Slugger.” Ashworth references Dolly Parton in 1980’s 9-to-5, Steve Lacy’s album Gemini Rights, and the composer Frédéric Chopin’s “nocturnal” melodies. These references reiterate that this song is pop, meaning that it is not meant to be niche or exclusive. Ashworth is aiming for a song that can be widely listened to and understood. The song’s self-referential nature plays into this. 

While “Slugger” is a great pop song, it is also filled with raw emotions. One of the most striking lyrics comes when Ashworth sings: “you think ‘cause you’re older / that you’re gonna get better at being colder / but life takes a different turn, and / thirty years old, and you’re still getting burned.” Throughout “Slugger” Ashworth grapples with what it means to not have your life entirely together, to be “quite a mess.” Ashworth’s near breathless delivery of the song’s lyrics further conveys this deep desire to “just shut up forever” and be another person. “Slugger” is a song about the fears and reluctance that come with falling in love.  

“Slugger” is quite simply an indie-pop banger. It’s catchy and fun, the perfect kind of melancholy song that you can still dance to. The highly catchy chorus and emotional verses are sure to play well live. It will be interesting to see how Ashworth continues to blend her wry lyricism with pop melodies as she releases more tracks from Blood On the Silver Screen.