Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl

[alsemanche 87,362]

7 minutes ago, Vincem said:

For real, I don't get the hate on the songs so far. They're all melodically strong they got pretty stucked in my head. Hold the girl is a powerfull gay "church" song (there's like a spirital feels to it) , Catch me in the air is a strong 2000's stadium anthem, Phantom is a wonderfull ballad and Hurricanes is catching that 2006 pop/rock sound Hillary Duff ish vibe. And This Hell channels pure queer Shania Twain. WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED?!

They all sound annoyingly preachy and have this 'inspirational' vibe/sound to them that I don't enjoy at all, especially the way Rina sings them. This Hell is cute but it got boring after a few listen. 

Her sound with Sawayama was very good, she got the right balance of experimental and fun with a mix of good messages. She's missing that mark so far with her recent stuff imo. I don't expect a similar sound obviously. 

I don't NEED anything, she can do whatever she wants and I'm free to have my opinions on what she releases 

[Sorcerer 10,559]

Hold The Girl currently has 87 on Metacritic and is the 20th highest ranked album of 2022 so far.

https://www.metacritic.com/music/hold-the-girl/rina-sawayama

[Poltergeist 2,825]

Listening to it in REAL HQ is surreal  Even though I've already heard every song before, today's my first listen to the whole album according to the tracklist, and it's an adventure, just like listening to whole Chromatica. My AOTY, imo even better than Sawayama, love you Rina, become a MPG one day, you deserve this (and release Holy as a single, because that's the biggest bop in your career!) 

[Ororo Munroe 59,615]

4 hours ago, alsemanche said:

They all sound annoyingly preachy and have this 'inspirational' vibe/sound to them that I don't enjoy at all, especially the way Rina sings them. This Hell is cute but it got boring after a few listen. 

Her sound with Sawayama was very good, she got the right balance of experimental and fun with a mix of good messages. She's missing that mark so far with her recent stuff imo. I don't expect a similar sound obviously. 

I don't NEED anything, she can do whatever she wants and I'm free to have my opinions on what she releases 

same, I'm rooting for her and will support all of her releases, but i'm not feeling these pre release singles at all sadly! still excited to hear the full thing tho. 

[Tinnitus15 48,463]

46 Minutes for me.The thing I don’t like is that she basically released almost half the album.This way I will skip most of it,since I’ve been listening to the singles a lot

[allanrocks 175]

I love Rina, the songs are not bad, but I’m just not feeling it 

[Blackout19 9,241]

This Hell is the only song that I like from this album... 

[NATAH 31,401]

i've only heard 2 of the singles so far because the lead and the next were alright, not gag worthy so idk what to expect with the album

[Ororo Munroe 59,615]

listening to it right now, Holy slaps tbh! 

[sarcamstic 1,411]

honestly OBSESSED with this album… my AOTY by far  RINA SLAYWAYAMA STRIKES AGAIN

[Ororo Munroe 59,615]

okay, I really like Rina and i'm happy for her success, but this album feels lowkey... lifeless? idk how to explain this feeling, it seems empty to me. some songs are cute though! maybe the album will grow on me who knows, but this project definitely lacks personality imo, and before anyone comes for me i've been listening to Rina way before she released her debut album, so to me this project misses something that has been making her such a standout among other pop artists this whole time! but still hope it does well! 

[TD878 143]

This is so good wth??

[NichuuB 43,421]

14 minutes ago, Ororo Munroe said:

okay, I really like Rina and i'm happy for her success, but this album feels lowkey... lifeless? idk how to explain this feeling, it seems empty to me. some songs are cute though! maybe the album will grow on me who knows, but this project definitely lacks personality imo, and before anyone comes for me i've been listening to Rina way before she released her debut album, so to me this project misses something that has been making her such a standout among other pop artists this whole time! but still hope it does well! 

it's bland. anyone couldve released this album. it's like rita ora's level of plainness

[emili0 1,132]

I haven’t listened yet, but I am surprised by the amount of people here saying they don’t vibe with the songs!!! Phantom and Catch Me in the Air are some of my favorite songs released this year. Cannot wait to to hear the whole thing in full and spin my record when it arrives.

Not sure if she’s dubbing it a concept-album, but I think knowing the background for it has hyped me up even more-so, since the songs have been consistent in theme, yet vary in style. I’M READY TO HOLD THE ****ING GIRL.

[PawsUpJago 1,845]

I'm surprised at the hate on this one I would for sure replace a few tracks on Sawayama with some of these even. 

I feel like I just always get the sonic references she's going for so I find them very easy to get into, I don't really ever love her ballads (Phantom grew on me, it's definitely some 2000s pop ballad energy) so Send My Love to John is a skip for me, I also don't really like Forgiveness, but besides that it's a very satisfying album, wish the wait wasn't so long I feel like we had too many singles, is have loved to have heard more of the singles in the context of the album for the first time. I love that she kept Clarence on most of the tracks, he's a genius and it wouldn't feel like Rina without him.

I feel like loads of the 2000s influences are specifically UK based so it just hits me in the right way for sure. I saw someone calling her out before saying that it's just her rehashing sounds from older eras of music, but...Sawayama literally also did that on basically every track also 😅

Also not people calling out cheesy lyrics when we are Gaga fans 😅

Not saying everyone has to love it I'm just surprised to see it's the majority that don't seem to love anything on it.

(I do think the rollout was weird and drawn out though so maybe there is some fatigue there with the project?)