Rina Sawayama Shares “Bad Friend,” Last Single Before Sawayama’s Release

Rina Sawayama’s much anticipated debut album Sawayama is out tomorrow on April 17. Just ahead of its release, Sawayama has dropped the album’s final single “Bad Friend,” following the previously released “Chosen Family.” “Bad Friend” is also one of the album’s tender moments. Tinged with the same heart-on-sleeve emotion as Stripped-era Christina Aguilera, the track is a thoughtful reflection on Sawayama’s past failings in her relationships. The song culminates in a choral take-em-to-church moment complete with claps, shouting out “Put your hands up / If you’re not good at this stuff.”

Along with the song, Sawayama shared a karaoke-style lyric video with several stills of her and blurred-out friends belting out on mics. They’re presumably “singing their hearts out to Carly [Rae Jepsen],” given both the lyrics and a reply to a fan saying “its crazy cos Kyle Shearer coproduced this after the song was written and he works with carly a lot… i cant.”

Today Sawayama also announced she will host a virtual listening party for the album via Spotify along with a corresponding Q&A session. You can find details and listen to the song below.