Rina Sawayama leans into the mainstream with second album ‘Hold the Girl’
Rina Sawayama’s well-received debut album SAWAYAMA placed the British-Japanese singer alongside the likes of experimental pop artists such as Charli XCX and FKA Twigs when it was released in 2020.
Blending a wide range of genres from classic sugary pop to nu-metal, Sawayama’s debut is a bold and powerful pop album with plenty of standout tracks, such as ‘XS,’ ‘Comme Des Garcons (Like the Boys)’ and ‘STFU!’
With her sound deriving inspiration from the likes of Bjork, SOPHIE, and even pop legends such as Madonna and Britney Spears, Sawayama’s sophomore album has been hotly anticipated.
Hold The Girl is comprised of 13 tracks, all around the easily accessible three-minute mark. However, whereas the singer was unafraid to take chances on SAWAYAMA, Hold The Girl leans closer into the mainstream, with almost every track sounding as though it was made to be performed live.
The album begins with a mellow opener in the form of ‘Minor Feelings,’ a ballad that establishes the album’s themes of revisiting the past before blasting off into the future. The short track transitions into ‘Hold the Girl,’ an unbearably anthemic track that feels so heavily manufactured for stadium singalongs that it loses all traces of originality. Instead, it utilises painfully generic pop beats that wouldn’t sound out of place in an H&M dressing room or soundtracking a Love Island challenge, all before culminating in a cheesy clap-along moment.
Luckily, Sawayama redeems herself with ‘This Hell,’ a catchy and solid pop song that weaves statements on homophobia with references to queer culture, tying everything together with a memorable guitar solo.
‘Holy’ and ‘Your Age’ provide the album with some darker synth moments, with the latter using a driving beat that pounds through the centre of the album, harking back to the heavier moments of SAWAYAMA.
‘Imagining’ experiments with some glitchier sounds, bordering on a deranged Charli XCX moment, and minus some cringe-inducing lyrics such as “I don’t know if mercury’s in retrograde, am I ok?”, it becomes one of the album’s standout tracks.
However, arguably Hold the Girl‘s highlight is ‘Frankenstein,’ which begins with a fast-paced synth before what sounds like a sped-up Joy Division-esque bassline chimes in, even drawing sonic parallels to Sleaford Mods and especially the Slowthai and Mura Masa collaboration ‘Doorman.’
The album is at its weakest on ‘Hurricanes,’ which, with its pop-rock sound, would slot right into place as a closing track for a cheesy early-2000s teen movie. Sawayama also tries her hand at a folk-inspired song on ‘Send My Love to John,’ which sees her lyrical content become the track’s focal point. Despite promising lyrical themes about identity, the guitar is overtly bland, and the whole song falls rather flat.
Sawayama delivers an interesting second album with Hold the Girl that contains some genuine slices of pop genius alongside cringe-inducing and derivative hooks and lyrics. In fact, lyrics appear to be the main issue at hand. Lines such as “Flowers, still look pretty when they’re dying/ Blue skies always there behind the rain” (‘To Be Alive’) and “Doing yoga just to feel untethered but my mind keeps/ Running away/ Chasing hurricanes/ Cos I can’t feel the rain” (‘Hurricanes’) are pretty terrible.
Nevertheless, Sawayama proves that she is a pop powerhouse, capable of making arena-sized sounds at such an early stage in her career. She undoubtedly has a promising career ahead of her because when she makes a good song – it’s really good. Sadly, Hold the Girl is held back by a choice to pander to the mainstream instead of experimenting with bolder and more interesting sounds.
Hold the Girl will be released on September 16th.
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