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Photo: Jennifer Cheng

SAYA is the stunning portraiture of musical non-conformist and sonic surrealist, Saya Gray. The Japanese Canadian artist’s self-titled project is her full-length album debut, but Gray’s discography is far from nascent. Listeners may be familiar with the intriguing genre collages that are her previous projects, LP 19 Masters and the QWERTY EPs. While Gray’s prior releases solidified her as an abstract genre-bending collagist, SAYA paints a new portrait of the artist. Gray’s production choices and songwriting abilities on this album feel fully realized in a way that serves to shed new light on her prior musical experimentation.

Sparked by the dissolution of a close relationship coupled with a solo cross-country journey through Japan, SAYA is a contemplative reflection of Gray’s detangling of herself from the parts of her life that exist in the past. This sentiment is fully felt on the opening track “..THUS IS WHY (I DON’T SPRING 4 LOVE)” with Gray’s layered vocals repeating, “This is why I don’t fall in love in springtime / Hello, snow, I’m alone / Indigo / Where were you when I needed you most?” 

While Gray has historically been one to dance across the boundaries of genre, the next track of the album and lead single “SHELL (OF A MAN)” sees Gray landing somewhere between indie-folk and country, complete with acoustic instrumentation, slide guitar, and chugging drums.

“PUDDLE (OF ME)” is a particular standout on the project. Gray’s infectious melody singing, “You know there’s a puddle of me at your feet, isn’t that what you needed of me? / You know how obsessed I can get with your needle and thread pulling in and out of me” is a hauntingly beautiful surrender, chronicling an endless yearning that continues melting into the next track “HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE?”

By the second half of the album, yearning turns into heartbreak, a conclusion that Gray comes to with clarity and acceptance through the final tracks, “EXHAUST THE TOPIC” and “LIE DOWN..” If listening through the album feels anything like swimming, trying to stay afloat, and nearly drowning, “LIE DOWN” is the moment when the waves settle and the sun comes out. The final refrain, “She can look like me, she won’t feel like me / She can look like me (I can make your dust turn to sparkle)” feels more self-assured and affirming than it does melancholic.

SAYA is a refreshing and insightful collection of Gray’s past experiences and the culmination of years of experimental music-making wrapped into a 10-track project that sounds and feels distinctively her own. Throughout her previous records, Gray has delicately fine-tuned her songwriting and production abilities (in collaboration with brother Lucian Gray), resulting in one hell of a debut album. 

Listen to SAYA below: