The World Ends With … SAWA? “333” Album Review

Remember SAWA? She sang a number of songs on The World Ends With You (that’s Subarashiki Kono Sekai in Japan), the Square Enix Action RPG for DS with music by Takeharu Ishimoto. SAWA is the stage name of a particular female vocalist (full name Sawa Kato), but she has her own band which uses the SAWA name. And she definitely releases her own music outside of videogames.

“333” was SAWA’s debut full LP-sized album. They also have a new EP out called “Figure and Shadow,” but we’re going to look into her roots with this album. How does she sound without backup from Ishimoto, outside the context of game music? If you want to find out, I would recommend reading beyond the jump.

I affectionately refer to the style of music that dominates this album as “brain-killing music.” It’s not death metal… that actually activates my mind. This is a sort of J-trash-rock sound. Take an American band like Hole or Garbage, occasionally throw in harmonies that are more reminiscent of Eisley or Dixie Chicks, but make sure the vocalist is always bending the notes slightly flat. Distortion guitars everywhere, some funky synth on a few tracks, and otherwise sound like a high school garage band. In other words, fairly derivative stuff.

Now, the appeal for a gaijin listener like myself is that it’s a Japanese girl singing 100% English lyrics. And there isn’t any Engrish here, my friends. She has her consonants down! Vowels, on the other hand, could use some work. The words are all fully discernable, but they are delivered in the most lazy way possible. An emphasis on proper vowel usage would help, but I imagine that’s probably not very easy for a native Japanese speaker. Even Utada, the paragon of Pacific-Ocean-crossing J-pop, can occasionally stumble on her vowels.

Lyrically, this album is a gigantic celebration of depression and being cryptic about one’s feelings. It’s like taking the metaphor “wearing your heart on your sleeve,” but that heart is actually a twisted parody of your real heart. That’s what I pick up from the lyrics. Also, a surprising quantity of expletives. She has no problem pronouncing those words, I assure you.

The album proper is 12 tracks, but there are another 4 bonus tracks at the end (remixes of songs earlier in the album). The final track (excluding the bonus tracks), “One Thing,” is an acoustic piece, where we most clearly hear SAWA’s voice. It’s a nice, relaxing piece using the typical I V vi IV (“Canon in D”) chord progression. I like it. The big single from the album, “BUSTED!,” is something I simply do not like. It’s the epitome of brain-killing music. My brain cells just shrivel. I can’t write while the song is playing, and I usually write music reviews while listening to the music. I had to skip the track, because I couldn’t type while it was playing. Oy.

This album is available digitally via JapanFiles, as is their new EP (which I think is slightly superior to the 333 full album). Give it a try if you’re feeling adventurous, and/or if you really really liked SAWA’s vocals in The World Ends With You.