Revised Edition: Rina Sawayama - Hold the Girl

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A post header, featuring the text ‘REVISED EDITION’ set vertically / rotated counterclockwise beside a CD slip cover on a green cutting mat. The slip cover is for a revised edition of Rina Sawayama’s album, Hold the Girl—the cover of which features a shot of Sawayama stood poised, with her arms up, on a set which looks like it could be a volcano. The shot is from a shoot Sawayama did for Who What Wear.

The release of Hold the Girl was a bit of a mess. New songs dropping in quick succession. A terrible album cover. A lead single which was not really reflective of the album whatsoever, and in retrospect shoulda been held back for a re-release of the album to coincide with the Hold the Girl: Reloaded tour given the branding of it. The whole thing was a mess. None of it hindered the albums success though, as Hold the Girl hit number 3 on the UK albums chart, a massive jump from Sawayama’s positioning of 80. But for me, there was a very clear sense that the rollout could and should have been better. And then when I heard the album, I thought ‘Oh. And the problems continue.’

It took a while for Hold the Girl to click with me. But even when it did, I just didn’t feel as enthused about the album as I did Sawayama or the Rina EP, despite getting the vision Rina had for it. And I also found that I cherry picked songs very early on and only played those songs. Where-as with Sawayama and Rina, even if I did start by playing a cherry picked song, I would usually end up saying ‘Fuck it’ and playing the whole album / EP - especially in the case of Sawayama, where “Dynasty” was my favourite song on the album, which also happened to be the first song on it.

But even when Hold the Girl did click for me, the album as it was still didn’t flow the best. So I wound up re-ordering the songs in a way so that it did.

  1. Minor Feelings
  2. Hold the Girl
  3. Holy (Til You Let Me Go)
  4. Imagining
  5. Frankenstein
  6. Your Age
  7. Send My Love to John
  8. Forgiveness
  9. Phantom
  10. Hurricanes
  11. Catch Me in the Air
  12. To Be Alive

Yep. “This Hell” is gone. The sound of that song just did not fit the album at all, even though the lyrics did fit it thematically.

You can check out my revised edition of Hold the Girl as a playlist on Spotify, YouTube Music and YouTube.

🔊 Stream the ?J Revised Edition of Hold the Girl : 🟢 Spotify | 🔴 YouTube Music | 🔴 YouTube

🗄️ Rina tings: Rina Sawayama calls out Matt Healy for racism and xenophobia, and reveals that he owns her masters!? Also, what is ‘masters’? | Rina Sawayama covers Hikaru Utada’s “First Love” | Rina Sawayama covers Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” | Rina Sawayama isn't eligible for a Mercury Prize or a BRIT award, because xenophobia

💿 Rina reviews: Hold the Girl | This Hell | Sawayama | Rina

💽 Rina revision: Sawayama (Deluxe Edition)

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