Rina Sawayama’s second album, “Hold the Girl,” takes the genre-hopping promise of her debut and points it straight at the arena. Thirteen tracks, 46 minutes, built around a single idea: reaching back to a younger self and pulling her forward. The record trades subtlety for scale, and mostly it earns the trade.
Minor Feelings Through Catch Me in the Air
The album opens on “Minor Feelings,” a two-minute mission statement that sets the stakes before the music even settles in. Then the title track, “Hold the Girl,” arrives with full force — an all-in pop-country hybrid that critics flagged as one of the record’s high points. The song’s chorus lands with the weight of a declaration, and the production around it never lets the moment slip.
“This Hell” follows, a line-dancing anthem that turns defiance into a chorus built for a crowd to shout back. It’s one of the tracks singled out most often, and the hook justifies the attention. The song carries a wink in its delivery, a knowing nod that keeps the defiance playful rather than heavy. “Catch Me in the Air” cools things down slightly, a mother-daughter ballad that opens into a stadium-sized chorus by its final third. It’s the gentlest track on the opening stretch, but it still aims for the back of the room.
Forgiveness to Your Age
“Forgiveness” and “Holy (Till You Let Me Go)” sit back to back in the album’s middle stretch, and both lean into church-choir production, all swelling harmony and lift. “Holy” is the stronger of the two, praised as a standout for its steady, almost reverent build. The track moves like a slow rise, adding layers until the whole thing feels like a congregation singing back. “Forgiveness” shares that sacred tone but keeps its feet closer to the ground, a more personal plea wrapped in the same harmonic warmth.
“Your Age” is the shortest turn on the record, a look back at an old memory that doesn’t stay too long. It clocks in under three minutes and works as a sharp pause before the album’s most ambitious stretch. The brevity is a strength — it says what it needs to say and steps aside.
Imagining, Frankenstein and Hurricanes
This stretch is where the album’s ambition is clearest.
- “Imagining” leans into bright, synth-driven pop without losing its personal center.
- “Frankenstein” is blunt about its own construction — stitched-together verses, a chorus that locks into place — and critics called it out as one of the record’s boldest moments.
- “Hurricanes” is the disco peak of the album, polished and driving, and it’s another track that reviewers kept coming back to.
Taken together, these three tracks make the case that Sawayama’s genre-blending works best when the stakes stay just as high as the production. “Imagining” carries a lighter touch, but its hook is no less direct. “Frankenstein” wears its seams on the outside, a song that names its own making. “Hurricanes” pushes the energy upward, a dance floor turn that still holds the emotional thread of the record.
Send My Love to John, Phantom and To Be Alive
“Send My Love to John” is a quieter turn, a piano-led story about a mother reckoning with her son, and it lands with more restraint than almost anything else on the record. The song steps back from the arena and speaks in a smaller voice, which makes its impact land differently. It’s a patient piece, letting the story unfold without rushing the point.
“Phantom” follows as one of the album’s most singled-out tracks, a swelling, theatrical piece that critics pointed to as evidence of Sawayama’s range. The song builds like a slow tide, adding strings and force until it reaches a peak that feels earned. The actual closer, “To Be Alive,” ends the record on a big, open note rather than a hushed one — a choice that fits an album built for big rooms, not headphones. It leaves the listener with a sense of lift, a final push toward the light.
Rolling Stone wrote that the album is smoother on the surface, channeling Sawayama’s twisted visions into straight-ahead pop tunes with arena-ready confidence. That line captures the record’s whole approach: bigger hooks, cleaner edges, same restless imagination underneath.
Where the Critics Split
Not every outlet heard the same record. Metacritic’s aggregate sits at 84 out of 100, reflecting broad critical enthusiasm. The consensus among most reviewers was that “Hold the Girl” is a bold, emotionally raw pop leap that expands on Sawayama’s debut with arena-ready confidence.
Pitchfork was the exception, scoring the album lower and arguing that its everything-at-once approach comes at the cost of coherence and risk. The review’s sharpest line — the suggestion that Sawayama heard the adage about killing your darlings and decided it wasn’t slay enough — captures the complaint precisely: too much, all at once, without a clear through-line.
| Outlet | Score | Core Complaint or Praise |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic (aggregate) | 84/100 | Broad praise for honesty and pop ambition |
| Pitchfork | Lower score | All-in approach seen as lacking coherence and risk |
That split isn’t a contradiction. It’s a description of what “Hold the Girl” actually is: an album that refuses to edit itself down, for better and for worse. The maximalist approach that some critics found exhausting, others found thrilling.
The Case for the Standout Tracks
The tracks that critics kept returning to — “Minor Feelings,” “This Hell,” “Holy (Till You Let Me Go),” “Hurricanes,” “Phantom,” and “Frankenstein” — are the strongest evidence for the album’s case. They show Sawayama moving between country, choir-backed pop, disco and theatrical writing without losing her own voice underneath the changing dress. Each of these songs makes a separate argument for what the album can do, and together they form a convincing whole.
Where the album weakens is exactly where Pitchfork pointed: the all-in approach can run together on a single listen, and a few tracks feel more like proof of range than fully finished songs. The density that makes the highlights soar can also make the middle stretch blur, with one big moment bleeding into the next. That’s not a fatal flaw, but it is a real one.
But the highs are truly high.
“Hold the Girl” is a record that trades restraint for confidence, and mostly wins that trade. It doesn’t need every listener convinced — it only needs the biggest moments to land, and they do. The album’s best tracks are the ones that commit fully to their own scale, and those moments carry the whole project.
- Minor Feelings2:01
- Hold the Girl4:06
- This Hell3:56
- Catch Me in the Air3:36
- Forgiveness4:21
- Holy (Till You Let Me Go)3:19
- Your Age2:54
- Imagining3:33
- Frankenstein3:12
- Hurricanes3:23
- Send My Love to John3:25
- Phantom4:25
- To Be Alive3:55
