Hold the Girl
| Rina Sawayama
Hold the Girl
Hold the Girl is the second studio album by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. It was released on 16 September 2022 by Dirty Hit. The lead single from the album, entitled "This Hell", was released on 18 May 2022. The album, recorded between 2020 and 2021, features production from collaborators including Paul Epworth, Clarence Clarity, Stuart Price, and Marcus Andersson. Clarence Clarity also produced much of Sawayama's debut album Sawayama (2020). -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Seeking empathy for a younger self, Rina Sawayama’s second album pirouettes through pop-punk and power ballads, trance and stadium rock. It’s ambitious in the same way as putting on all the clothes in your closet.
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NME
The genre mixology concocts big, brilliant tunes with trance, indie, ‘90s alt-rock, ‘00s soft-rock – and much more – by lacing by them with undeniable hooks.
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Sputnik Music
Hold the Girl both finds and buries itself in its retro fixations. It’s a respectable record with easily enough depth and conviction to hint at something thoroughly vital, but it folds so much of itself along lines too deeply creased into forms too clean-edged to bear the kind of authorial stamp its many raw qualities beg for. Rina Sawayama’s will and vision have long been strong enough to bend individual sounds to their scope; taking on an entire holistically-packaged zeitgeist, it seems she’s finally met her match.
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Popmatters
Rina Sawayama’s second LP, Hold the Girl, suffers from a lack of risk and is self-consciously conservative in terms of execution. It’s a bewildering anticlimax.
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Paste Magazine
A grand attempt to capitalize on her recent brushes with the mainstream, Hold the Girl gives Sayawama’s fans space to process their own traumas and unravel toxic narratives.
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The Wall Street Journal
On her sophomore album the British-Japanese singer leans markedly toward the center while still tapping into some of the offbeat genre mixes that make her distinctive.
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Loud and Quiet
For Sawayama, the sounds of pop’s past and present provide a handy tool for mining personal histories, their vocabularies of youthful angst and escape re-contextualised into profound statements of self-discovery. Pop can be about as ‘dangerous’ as conservative mindsets believe it is – at its very best, it can poke and prod at institutions and societal inventions taken as innate, and often, you don’t need to sit with it for very long to understand what it’s getting at.
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Slant Magazine
Her experiments aren’t as bold or memorable as those of her debut, and the hooks throughout Hold the Girl aren’t as immediately catchy. Nonetheless, Sawayama’s undeniably fierce willingness to gaze further inward and confront thornier topics makes the album compelling in its own right.
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Crack Magazine
In short, this is Rina Sawayama at her most electric on an album that’s otherwise difficult to warm to.
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musicOMH
Imbued with a spirit and attitude that only the very best pop records have, this is not just a step up but a whole leap to a new exalted level of pop excellence.
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The Guardian
The British-Japanese star dials down the jarring fusion of her debut on a set of beautifully crafted out-and-out hits.
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Beats Per Minute
Hold the Girl is an excellent sophomore album from an artist who selflessly wears her heart on her sleeve to help others. The journey of this project in healing your past self, forgiving others, and arriving at a place where you’re not only willing to face the future, but will strive to make a better one for yourself, is an inspirational offering. From other artists, maybe such a message proves a bit too cheesy and schlocky for the cynical listener. But with bops and tearjerkers aplenty, Rina’s sincerity in how she confronts her past demons cannot help but warm even the iciest heart.
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Afterglow
Hold The Girl is an incredibly moving masterclass in pop perfection. As Sawayama reaches out to her younger self, she tugs at listener’s heartstrings, moving them to tears and to the dance floor at the same time. Fans of SAWAYAMA will appreciate the innovative production of this album, especially Sawayama’s incorporation of country elements into “This Hell” and “Your Age,” as well as the darker electronic productions of “Holy” and “Imagining,” but the album’s more introspective and insightful moments are equally as interesting. Sawayama has officially gone two for two, beating the sophomore slump curse with ease.
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Medium
While not every track resonates with me personally, Hold The Girl is another remarkable opus from Sawayama and Clarity, and I hope this success emboldens them to push the boundaries even further.
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DIY Magazine
An eclectic palette of bombastic, heart-on-sleeve euphoric pop and angsty dancefloor fillers.
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Stereoboard
Sawayama is at her best when she is being herself, twisting genre conventions and putting them under her own spell. Here, we only feel that dynamic in full flow for half an album, otherwise ‘Hold The Girl’ is far too inconsistent.
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Rolling Stone
Rina Sawayama Breaks Stuff and Builds Back Better on ‘Hold the Girl’.
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Exclaim!
Despite some bumps, Hold the Girl is full of passion and reflection, uninterested in holding back and unafraid to revel in the power of vulnerability and self-love.
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Our Culture
‘To Be Alive’, by contrast, is the opposite of subtle, anchoring in a pulsating beat, plenty of lyrical cliches, and a soaring chorus that seeks acceptance from within. Even though its hopeful sentiment has been expressed time again and again – in Hold the Girl and pop music at large – the reason it still makes for an exuberant conclusion is pointedly simple: “Feels like the first time.”
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The Playground
Notably, Sawayama and Clarity seemed to have settled into their craft of juxtaposition. Whereas the genre bending on SAWAYAMA was often jarring and tonally disjointed, often intentionally so, Hold The Girl flows into its segments with satisfying ease. The song is impressively crafted. When its parts come together on the post second verse chorus, it feels revelatory. Ever the maximalist, following a bridge which sees Sawayama channel Ariana Grande she manages to squeeze in a key change. It’s a gloriously camp drama, and while recent songs have used the tactic flippantly, on Hold The Girl it feels earned.
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Spectrum Culture
On her sophomore album Hold the Girl, Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama straddles countless genres and parts of her identity, combining the numerous aspects to make both a sonically absorbing and thought-provoking album.
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Exepose
Overall, this album takes on a thematic consistency and permits the listener to an insight into Sawayama’s childhood and the retrospective thoughts and emotions she has encountered on her way through adulthood. She challenges what she was told, comforts her childhood self, allows herself to feel anger, and finds a way to move on.
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Northern Transmissions
It’s an impressive album of well-written songs, with all the bells and whistles, including the often perfect vocal ad lib. It must have been a super healing album to write, dealing with the wounds of her inner child, and promises to be liberating for a large group of listeners, who have struggled like herself with accepting herself, no matter the status quo.
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Collegiate Times
“Hold the Girl” is an immersive and deeply powerful work of art that tells a beautiful story. Every word and melody has purpose within the album, and when put together, Sawayama guides the listener through the trials and tribulations faced during this rough part of her life. Sawayama not only demonstrates her superstardom on “Hold the Girl,” but also puts on a masterclass on the art of storytelling.
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The Young Folks
On her latest album Rina Sawayama delivers a cinematic tale of perseverance.
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Clash Magazine
‘Hold The Girl’ is a record that holds something for everyone. Rock riffs, club beats, saccharine melodies, 2000s pop… it truly covers a lot of ground. Like debut record ‘SAWAYAMA’, this sophomore LP does a bit of everything, but this time around feels more refined, consistent and polished: exactly what a follow up should be. And on a label roster saturated with enormous amounts of talent, Rina Sawayama is making a pretty good claim to being the ruler.
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The Nuance Magazine
This is a record that the pop star needed to create, and by the end of the last song, “To Be Alive,” she feels whole again, getting through her dark past to finally look forward to a bright future. Hold the Girl reveals how therapy changed Rina Sawayama’s life for the better while musically traversing many different genres. The strength of her sophomore effort shows that her debut was just the start and cements her status as one of the most versatile artists today.
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The Forty-Five
On her second full-length record, Rina Sawayama speaks to her inner child through genre-spanning, festival-ready bops.
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The Skinny
Hold the Girl, cements Sawayama as a one-of-a-kind talent. Hold the Girl perfects the art of expressing familiar tragedies in a fresh, hopeful, and magnificently powerful way. It's the sort of music that's perfect for screaming along with in your car – the album is rich, diverse, and emotionally ambitious.
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The Line of Best Fit
Despite a more varied array of songs than her debut, it just shows that Sawayama's not afraid to swing big. This album makes use of every single second of its runtime, jam-packed with choruses so huge and emotional, no one can quite replicate her unique sound and vision. By redefining what pop music can say or do, Sawayama is one of the most exciting musicians today.
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Melodic Magazine
While some of the lyrics feel rudimentary, Rina brings the acceptance to life in a way that only someone who wants it can. Though some elements of the album did not fit with its prevalent motif, this song alone proves her standing as an artist. When Rina said she could “be your Frankenstein,” one things for sure: she’s a genius with experimentation.
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Penny Black Music
Overall, though, ‘Hold The Girl’ is definitely a breath of fresh air!
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East Side Vibes
On Hold The Girl, Rina tones down some of the risky and bold qualities from her debut record for something that’s more widely palatable. She still has some of those moments on this record, but not as many as some people would have looked for. Hold The Girl is not as big and exciting as Rina’s first record, but it’s still a great album that proves Rina is one of the most exciting artists making pop music today.
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The Boar
Given that Hold the Girl is such an intensely personal body of work, the themes and lyrics are its most powerful element. Each song feels personally crafted, a way of channelling emotional issues into a cohesive collection of songs.
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Evening Standard
The genre-masher returns with another burst of chaotic excess.
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Hotpress
Hold The Girl is a testament to Sawayama’s versatility and, thanks to its punchy production, has the potential to broaden her audience beyond her fiercely loyal fanbase. This is a thrilling statement from Sawayama, an artist whose star is set to burn brighter and brighter.
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Gigwise
British-Japanese singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama’s new album Hold The Girl offers intimate, introspective moments of great, dramatic pop music. Revealing and healing in equal measure, it has more depth than many contempotary pop records.
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Retro Pop Magazine
Rina Sawayama builds upon her blossoming pop dynasty on ‘Hold The Girl’ – a second album packed with culturally poignant and personally significant pop bangers.
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The Independent
Pop star makes therapy fun on her ecstatic, eclectic second album.
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The Reflector
The album, Hold My Girl, is full of mellow beats that can resonate with anyone looking for a familiar type of pop music with unique conventions.
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AllMusic
This is one of those albums where each of the vastly different songs could be a hit and, no matter how many times it's been spun, a moment of pause is needed to fully absorb just how good it really is. Besting the already star-making Sawayama, the triumphant Hold the Girl is the sound of an artist taking their rightful place on the pop throne. Sawayama was born for this.
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The Ithacan
Sawayama could have easily tried to recreate the exact tone and style that made “SAWAYAMA” such a daring and unique success. Her trajectory on “Hold the Girl” moves toward introspection, showing real growth and maturity as an artist. Listeners hear in real time as Sawayama beautifully reconciles with her trauma and picks up all the different pieces of herself along the way.
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