Rina Sawayama releases her sophomore

album “Hold The Girl”

By Lily Isakson-Bell, Reporter

Going into “Hold The Girl,” Rina Sawayama’s sophomore album, I wasn’t sure what to expect. From the reaction to “Hold The Girl” and its five pre-released singles that I had seen, I was honestly a little bit worried. People were saying everything from “Hold The Girl” being a very disappointing album to just straight up calling it bad. I didn’t think that the album would be bad like some had claimed, but I was worried that it would be a let down from Sawayama’s debut album “SAWAYAMA” because of the masterpiece that it is. However, I think that Rina Sawayama has succeeded in making an album worthy of being the successor to “SAWAYAMA.”

“Hold The Girl” is definitely more mainstream pop than “SAWAYAMA” was, and I think in terms of pouring her heart out, Sawayama has turned the degree down. However, neither of these things are bad. “SAWAYAMA” feels like a young adult’s love letter account of their first taste of adulthood, and “Hold The Girl” feels like a teenager’s wishes for their future. To me, the sounds off of the album could very easily be the soundtrack to a teen girl’s trepidations about what’s to come in her life. They are albums made for different periods of your life, and together they fit beautifully.

The songs on “Hold The Girl” are a little bit heavier, with “SAWAYAMA” including more guitar riffs and pop-y ballads. There are elements of the album that feel very reminiscent to the pop-punk and alternative pop women who came before her. Sawayama delivers catchy and addictive pop songs that are soaked in rock influence like Avril Lavigne, and leans into the edgier side of things like Lady Gaga in songs like “Your Age” and “Imagining.” Part of what makes this album complete, to me, is the ballads. Songs like “Minor Feelings” and “Send My Love To John” showcase Sawayama’s knack for telling the listener about her life, and also show off her powerhouse vocals.

Unfortunately, and as much as I wanted to 100 percent love this album like I did “SAWAYAMA,” there were parts of it that were a bit hit or miss for me. While “Hold The Girl” was one of the songs off of the album that was released beforehand as a single, I can’t bring myself to really love it. The song is catchy, but also a little bit convoluted. It sounds like Sawayama had a bunch of ideas, all of them good on their own I might add, and decided that they should all go into the song together. Compared to “Forgiveness” and “Catch Me In The Air”—coincidentally my two favorite songs off of the album—”Hold The Girl” almost feels a bit messy.

All in all, “Hold The Girl” is a very good album and makes me extremely excited to hear what Sawayama has to put out in the future. Of course, the album is no “SAWAYAMA,” but it is 100 percent worthy enough to be its heir. What the album occasionally lacks in memorability, it makes up for in artistry.

Rating : 7.9/10