Please let me introduce you to Canadian-Japanese singer-songwriter Saya Gray and her self-titled release ‘SAYA’. It’s a heavy roller coaster, and a sonic jagged intense mess, but I’m assuring you it’s worth the ride. Packed with raw, fragmented and deconstructed  pop vibes, her heavy bass style drives an experimental soundscape that grounds her as an artist who is truly about to breakthrough.

This release, co-produced with her brother Lucian, is a theatrical and regal insight into Gray’s personal storytelling and gives us traditional break-up vibes, but far from the conventional listen.

We’re immediately thrust into the album with the energetic burst of ..THUS IS WHY (I DON’T SPRING 4 LOVE), where a bass-driven production collides with a frantic guitar edge. Gray opens with powerful, remorseful lyrics – ‘you loved me differently, I loved you all the same’ – setting the stage for a track drenched in longing, capturing the raw emotion of a breakup. By the chorus, we hear influence of Björk and Kate Bush as the vocal shifts from a raw, direct tone to a more abstract one, mumbling ‘this is why I don’t fall in love in springtime’. It’s a rejection of love in spring to avoid the inevitable loneliness of winter, perfectly encapsulated by the following lyric, ‘hello snow, I’m alone.’ The changing seasons here mirror the shifting dynamics of Saya’s love life, with symbolic references to color, like ‘indigo, where were you when I needed you most.’ Keep an eye on that symbolism, it’s going to make a comeback as we dive deeper..

SHELL (OF A MAN) quickly flips the script to offer a defiant, rebellious tone. The intro, marked by a quirky banjo riff, sets an unsettling stage as Gray makes her dissatisfaction with an ex-lover very clear. With lines like ‘un-invite the guests, I wanna call it off,’ she hints at a pre-planned night gone wrong, while the warning in ‘if you don’t like me now, you’ll hate me later’ preempts the chaos to come. There’s a mutual desire to leave the relationship, underscored by more cathartic banjo strums that anchor the storytelling with a country aura. The stripped-back production lets the lyrics breathe, leaving a bittersweet, sharp edge with lines like ‘call me out, call me rude and I’ll show you’. Rip that man apart babe!

Following this, LINE BACK 22 takes a more introspective turn, marked by electric guitars, drum pads, and a much slower pace. The regret in Gray’s lyrics ‘the sun sets on us, our love a blue lotus in the mud’ – speaks to the decay of a relationship. It’s a shift from the rebellion we hear in the previous track to a more melancholic realisation. Gray sings that her lover ‘lost sight’ of her, really setting the track’s somber tone. But then, at 02:15, something interesting happens. We get an unexpected breakdown where the production morphs into a stripped-back, industrial soundscape filled with reversed vocals and haunting synths until the outro.

This seamlessly picks up the pace and transitions into PUDDLE (OF ME). Here, Gray confesses to the toxic obsession of a relationship with a real sense of vulnerability: ‘I’m moving to California for ya, how did I get here again?’. The production consists of guitars which simultaneously sound organic and live but also fully produced and engineered. This uncanny feel mirrors Gray’s emotional collapse, but the descending, minor chords of the verse give way to another unexpected turn and a surge of energy in the chorus. Gray’s voice is unsure but persistent as she sings ‘am I ready or not, I love you,’ painting a picture of codependency, uncertainty and self-reflection.

This unsure vibe lingers and reaches its peak in HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE? This track hones in on the collapse of a facade, with Gray admitting, ‘I’m out of my mind’ and ‘I can’t pretend.’ The minimalist production here allows her confessions to take center stage, while twangy guitars shift between major and minor keys once again, mimicking the tug-of-war and internal battle of trying to keep a lie. The track’s gloomy tone is really settling in now, and it gives us a portal into Gray’s troubled and emotional world by the mid-point.

CATS CRADLE! acts as a jarring interlude, breaking up the intensity of the previous tracks with robotic text-to-speech slam poetry. The lyrics delve into themes of identity, authenticity, sin, and blind obedience, adding an unsettling layer to the album.

“What’s your love life in real life?
What’s your love life without leaving you?
Almost took my laugh from me
Calling your bluff is easy when cliffs fall”

In the quieter space following this, we move into 10 WAYS (TO LOSE A CROWN) – a downtempo ballad exploring transformation. The symbolic passage of time is evident in this one through the lyrics of ‘red and yellow leaves,’ signaling a shift from the springtime we hear in the opening track to the now ever-present autumn. The production is tight, calculated and controlled, but the mood shifts dramatically in the chorus, where Gray pleads, ‘don’t mistake my tears for the rain.’ This one stands out as a powerful blend of raw emotion and sophisticated production, with the heavy symbolism of a crown representing stability but the loss of it uncovering the troubles of identity and self-worth.

H.B.W. makes a thunderous entrance with a real trip-hop influence and a declarative tone. I feel accused already. This gothic-inspired track captures emotional mourning in the wake of a breakup, with the line ‘spooky boy you have a one-eighty face’ hinting at distrust. The production on this track mirrors a sense of chaos, with unpredictable shifts that echo the emotional ups and downs that sit at the heart of this track.

Embracing vulnerability over acoustic guitars, EXHAUST THE TOPIC relies heavily on the instrumental elements to convey it’s true meaning. Words don’t cut it on this one. Through peaks and valleys, the lyrics are seeking guidance and create an eerie feeling of being lost, as Gray sings ‘I speak of the devil and he appears just to show he’s listening.’ The track blurs boundaries both lyrically and sonically, blending deep bass lines, live acoustic guitars, and country-infused twangs with an unrelenting turbulence.

You know what else is unrelenting? This production bro! What the hell? I cannot believe how many different tones and assets are working in tandem on this track. Elements that wouldn’t necessarily work on paper, but are combining perfectly here to create such a new sound. I’m hearing deep bass, hollow drum pads, fresh, and light acoustic guitars, country influence sprinkled, and chromatic cohesiveness that feels like if it were a person, it’s staring at us right in the face. A nu-metal jam. A great penultimate.

Finally, LIE DOWN.. closes the album off with a reflective, bittersweet outro. Repeating the themes of love, loss, and identity that Gray explores throughout the album, we get a subtle and open resolution. It’s clear there’s a sense of being overlooked in the process of closing this album off, as the production holds a steady vibe but is still tingling with uncertainty. Gray stresses this through the lyrics ‘she can look like me, she won’t feel like me’, which evoke a sense of jealousy, but also a quiet acceptance. As the track fades out (…and I wish more artists did this), it does feel like this journey is not quite over. There’s definitely more to come which will probably be a heavy feature on her next release.

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In totality, this really is a masterpiece of a release and I’m so pleased it’s getting the traction it deserves. I’m all for genre-exploration, but this record is a real triumph in what it achieves. It’s a spanking new sound to my ears and one that has been on repeat since it came out. Each track is almost like looking at painting, analysing it and the layers of its wax, and then to imagine what that painting itself would sound like. It’s royal, it’s elegant, it’s a mismatch of concepts. But, it’s also full of gloom, social immorality and the setbacks that come along with being human.

This release is a huge experimental approach that shows that Saya Gray is by no means scared of pushing musical boundaries and using genres to fuse together such an eclectic release. A real, new, and distinctive sound which I’m excited to continue following in future projects. Big up.