Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl (September 16, 2022) Album • Page 6

this is out there and it's very good

 

How does it stack compared to her debut? Wondering if there’s any of the unique style from her debut on there / any Japanese inspired tracks?

 

i don't have a ton of familiarity with Japanese music, so i probably can't say how much it touches on those sounds in particular (although i wonder if the Japan-only bonus track might wade into that territory). what i can say is that i think this album not only feels more cohesive while retaining her genre-bending from LP1, but that the songs feel more immediate and memorable. sonically, there's definitely elements of mid-2000s contemporary pop rock, singer/songwriter & country (especially on Send My Love to John), dance, and a couple instances of darker rock (i know she said the album is semi-industrial, but i don't wanna immediately classify some of these tracks as such). it's both an extension of her sound but also a shift, and the sequencing really pays off.

 

There's only a vinyl rip out there currently, right? I was holding off because of that, but if the quality is good I might give it a go.

 

that's correct. digital versions of the singles are spliced in. the quality only sounds questionable on the first and last tracks, iirc.

 

Echoing a comment above (which I read latter so my bad if I'm repeating anything), it's much less genre exploring. I admit I ended up revisiting the debut less than the EP as I liked but didn't fully love everything and didn't think all the styles she tackled meshed well together on a sole body of work, so I appreciate the added cohesion here.

This one mainly comprises of two halves sonically, one with the Kelly Clarkson-y early 00s pop rock, CCM inspired stuff, and the other being more on the electronic side with dance and UK Garage influences popping up. The Lady Gaga-isms are still on the forefront.

I only gave it one listen and will wait for next Friday to revisit it, but after being lukewarm by the rollout (Hold The Girl aside), I found this to be a pleasant surprise. She definitely saved the best for the album tracks. The Holy (Til You Let Me Go) - Your Age - Imagining - Frankenstein run is fantastic and I expect those to become fan favorites.

 

sounds great!

 

I loved the way she meshed so many styles together on her debut - something for everyone and everything worked imo

I do hope that Hold the Girl is a pleasant surprise for me as well, the singles haven’t done anything for me

 

feel the same. looooved sawayama, not that into these singles. mainly because I don’t like lady gaga at all and rina is at her best when she doesn’t sound much like her lol

 

Thanks for the write up! Happy to hear she saved the best songs for the album tracks.

 

When I mean there are Lady Gaga-isms, I'm mainly talking about her sometimes theatrical and bombastic vocal performance. There's only one or two songs on the album that reminds me of her sonically, if that can alleviate your fears a little!

 

two more daysssss

 

Got my shopping notice today

 

If anyone has this in good quality (not a vinyl rip) PM me please. Thanks!

 

Excited to hear this in a little bit

 

Found this to be pretty good on first listen but definitely was hoping for more

 

Yeah I'm on the pretty good boat too. Holy (Til You Let Me Go), Your Age, and Imagining is a pretty great stretch of songs though.

 

Loved tracks 6-9, wasn’t that in love with the rest. Kind of felt like a lot of it was similar to Chosen Family which was my least favorite on the last album.

 

Yeah I was gonna say that there's a lot of ballads and a lot of them didn't really hit with me

 

Nooooo

 

good morning

 

I'm 8 songs in and I love how eclectic it is, I was worried she'd straighten out but it's not what I expected at all.