Rina Sawayama has been learning how to parent. Not a child of her own, mind you, but the child she once was. On her second album Hold the Girl, a follow-up to her genre-mashing 2020 debut, the British-Japanese pop star sits down with her younger self for some frank conversations about childhood trauma and open wounds. Somehow, she also manages to have some fun along the way.
With its delicate guitar and soft synths, “Minor Feelings” is a lovely but uncharacteristically sombre opener for Sawayama, an artist whose default setting is 11. It doesn’t take long for things to heat up, though. The title track, which sees the singer comfort her younger self, is a hypnotic, Gaga-style whirligig of garage and disco strings. “This Hell” deploys a foot-stomping, dance-ready diatribe against homophobes with nods to Shania Twain – including the obligatory “Let’s go girls!” at the intro. “Saw a poster on the corner opposite the motel/ Turns out I’m going to hell if I keep on being myself,” she belts on this anthem celebrating queer joy.
