RINA SAWAYAMA - HOLD THE GIRL
“She is me, and I am her. Hold the girl close to your heart.”
Joining the ranks with SZA’s Ctrl (and Ctrl Deluxe), Phoebe Bridger’s Punisher and Stranger in the Alps, and Mitski’s Be The Cowboy and Laurel Hell, Rina Sawayama’s Hold The Girl is a letter to and from the artist herself, but a letter many of us can read as our own sentiments. Similar to the aforementioned albums, Sawayama’s latest work is heart-wrenching, incredibly relatable, and makes me remember things I thought I forgot.
It’s the album that must count as inner child work, as it’s an ever-needed reminder that feeling our emotions is one of the most painful, yet healing, experiences one can go through.
The individual songs address different people in Rina’s life, like her past self with the heart-ripping introduction ‘Minor Feelings’, her mother with upbeat ‘Catch Me In The Air’, and anyone in her life she wants to forgive (or forget). This is a whirlwind. No two songs in order talk to the same person or have the same energy. If you listen in order, you’ll go from crying in the dark to dancing in the club within a minute.
You might be coming to this album after hearing one of Rina’s most popular songs ‘XS’, the anti-capitalist and consumerist critical pop hit, and if you’re craving a similar vibe, go to songs like ‘This Hell’ with the iconic and TikTok famous line of “F*ck what they did to Britney, Lady Di, and Whitney” and ‘Frankenstein’. Make sure you take another listen to hear the lyrics, because, beyond the electronic pop feel, these lyrics are incredibly and hauntingly relatable. All of her songs do, and if you’re here for her more stripped-back songs, ‘Minor Feelings’ ‘Give My Love to John’ and ‘Forgiveness’ are right up your alley, with instrumental and lyrics alike leaving you vulnerable.
I know I come from a place where the majority of this album is so relatable to me, as a queer non-white woman who grew up in a conservative religious area, so you might just be here for the great flow and music that scratches that itch. And that’s okay too! This album has a few relatable moments for so many different people, which is why I give it the full five stars. It’s relatable, yet unique enough that you know, just like the albums above at the beginning, this is the artist speaking from the heart to you. But it’s also one that you know these songs would exist even if this album was never published to the world.
This album doesn’t flow the way a typical genre-constraint album flows. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to a genre or tempo, but I think Hold The Girl shows the messiness, contradiction, and exploration of life’s events. Maybe you’ve done inner child work, you know how all you want to do is wish that younger you knew what you know now. Maybe you’re someone growing up in the closet hearing all these harmful things about who you are, and you need that reminder that there’s a beautiful community out there, and that it does actually get better. Maybe you just want some outstanding songs, and you’re searching for an artist that wears their heart on their sleeve.
If you’re even one of these, I’d say you’ve found what you’re looking for with Hold This Girl.
Alex Shukri
★★★★★