Notes

Hold the Girl by Rina Sawayama Boxers
Rina Sawayama was among the first pop stars to reach platinum status when she released a genre-defying, intense mini-album last year. She has been awarded a range of accolades for her music and has also been featured in an Elton John duet and a included track on LadyGaga's Chromatica Remix record.


As her debut SAWAYAMA proved, the 29 year old Cambridge graduate is a lot more ambitious than. Her nu metal, RnB and dance' sound is an incredibly diverse mix with a Noughties-inspired sensibility.



The debut album she released was a completely personal and empathetic album that was brimming with themes of identity in the face of intergenerational trauma and the anguish of being an Other in the context of a Western society that's more open to white, gay and transgender musicians. With this sophomore LP, Hold The Girl, the artist continues to explore these themes - and in doing so she's made an ambitious original pop album that is as significant as her own personal development as it is about the journey of those who listen to it.


It's not an accident that the song's title track is also the first track. The song is about the relationship of Rina with her mother. The lyrics describe "how we embraced one another up in the sky." Rina Sawayama Merch describes the difficult route that Rina and her mother took together. It gives a poetic eloquence of the bond between them.


It's an extremely moving song, and its narrative is repeated throughout the album, showing that Sawayama has always been a very vulnerable artist. She's composed about her traumas of race along with her immigrant experiences and the feelings of isolation she's faced as a British Asian woman living in London.


She's also an incredibly honest author, as is evident in her track 'Bad Friend', where she relates a tale of her relationship with a long-term best friend and admits, with a cold smile, "I've been avoiding everything due to being a bad friend." The reverberating effect is perceptive, and it's an excellent example of how Sawayama is able to distill the hurt she's suffered into a powerful music video that is both sweet and brutal.


'Phantom' and 'Hold The Girl' are similarly deeply moving set of tracks, in which Sawayama explores the themes she has struggled to understand and consider - while her powerful choruses and pulsing key changes keep the songs being incredibly fresh. This is an album that's special and the naive Japanese-British artist's career is set to increase as she releases her album.


As a young woman that's been through so much and endured so much, it's an indication of her strength and determination that she hasn't let anything stop her from achieving her goals. Her talents are a proof of her boundless potential as an artist.


The music she sings is a fusion, and also showcases her unique voice. It's one that's a little more edgy than the bubbly Britney Spearsand NSYNC bubblegum pop of her early albums, yet it is a sound that could be found to a contemporary LP.

Read More: https://www.rinasawayamamerch.com/