Sasami

At times the album that little bit too airy. As skilful as Ashworth is in crafting delicately spun melody--the jangling harmonies of ‘Morning Comes’, or the gentle lull of ‘At Hollywood’--her full force and potential truly reveals itself when the shadows burst out and take over, dragging her shoegazey soundscapes to the edge of the void.

Although SASAMI is a debut album, it feels more like the work of an artist whose craft is already honed--and that's because it is. You can hear the decades of refinement in Ashworth's songcraft, which makes for an absorbing collection of confessional songs both incredibly personal and widely relatable, on an incredibly self-assured debut.

It's a brilliant debut and immediately vaults Ashworth and SASAMI to the head of the class of 2019.

Sometimes Ashworth sounds like she’s yearning to startle her own music’s hypnotically pleasant surface, and there are times you wonder if the gauziness of shoegaze is doing her a disservice, hiding her in plain sight. But SASAMI is a powerful first effort, and Ashworth is a compelling presence.

Though on occasion the album can seem to retread the same ground, there are enough interesting genre exercises (see the lithe space-funk of "Jealousy") and dynamic production decisions to compensate.