album Rina Sawayama - 'Hold the Girl'

[Azealia Banks]

Catch me in the air is sooooo bad...

[Communion]

2 hours ago, Blueberry Kisses said:

Rina Does Early 2000s Pop/Rock - CMITA, Forgiveness, Hurricanes, Phantom

Rina Does What We Wanted/Expected - Holy, Frankenstein, Imagining, Your Age

Rina Does Radio Fodder - This Hell, HTG, To Be Alive

Bonus: Rina Does A Very Un-Rina-like Good Ballad - Send My Love

How is the title track "radio fodder"? It's literally the exact same sound as Holy and Imagining. 

If anything, Holy sounds more generic and expected, while the title track feels like all the album's influences finally colliding into one and her actually doing it pretty successfully. 

 

Also, grouping "Your Age" with the dance songs is odd and feels like people are just reacting to it being slightly aggressive and thus more ~up-tempo~ because it's more pop-rock than dance. 

 

The dance half - Hold The Girl, Holy, Imagining, To Be Alive

The pop-rock half - CMITA, Forgiveness, Hurricane, Phantom

 

Sure, This Hell is the big pandering pop single, but it feels silly to admit that but then ignore how Frankenstein serves kind of the same purpose. 

[Communion]

22 hours ago, Jagger said:

Well yeah. Some of us prefer alternative music to disney ballads 

 

and SAWAYAMA had way more interesting and catchy melodies  

I'm so confused... is this trying to suggest SAWAYAMA is an alternative album? 

 

SAWAYAMA is... a pop album. One of the best pop albums of the last 5 years. And I'd agree it has more dynamic highs than HTG but it's also pop. There's nothing alternative to it besides an indie label releasing it.

 

And the very few tracks that aren't pop are ones like "Dynasty", "STFU!" or "Who's Gonna Save You Now", and I remember that the initial reaction to "STFU!" was *not* positive, and ironically remember people calling it cheesy. 

 

----

 

Again, I'd argree SAWAYAMA is a more dynamic and diverse album, but being dynamic is not the same as being experimental or non-commercial. Outside of "This Hell", there's nothing as Top 40 sounding or as-current sounding on HTG as stuff on SAWAYAMA like "Commes des Garçons", "Bad Friend" or "Tokyo Love Hotel". The comments about "radio fodder" feel like people don't actually listen to her.. What's more radio fodder than something like "Bad Friend"?

 

You suddenly don't like CHEESINESS from the "Ordinary Superstar" and "Cherry" songstress?

 

This woman has never been an alt act. She literally started out making r&b-inspired pop on soundcloud, and I say that as someone who stanned her from seeing edits of the Where U Are video on Tumblr back in 2017 and who made her very first base on here. 

 

Hold The Girl is "full of Disney ballads" when "Imagining" is the weirdest thing Clarence & Rina have been able to make since "Alterlife"? It feels like so much of the reaction to her music post-RINA is projection and literally every release since has been criticized initially as cheesy or derivative until it grows on people & then praised.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Communion

[Jagger]

41 minutes ago, Communion said:

I'm so confused... is this trying to suggest SAWAYAMA is an alternative album? 

 

SAWAYAMA is... a pop album. One of the best pop albums of the last 5 years. And I'd agree it has more dynamic highs than HTG but it's also pop. There's nothing alternative to it besides an indie label releasing it.

 

And the very few tracks that aren't pop are ones like "Dynasty", "STFU!" or "Who's Gonna Save You Now", and I remember that the initial reaction to "STFU!" was *not* positive, and ironically remember people calling it cheesy. 

 

----

 

Again, I'd argree SAWAYAMA is a more dynamic and diverse album, but being dynamic is not the same as being experimental or non-commercial. Outside of "This Hell", there's nothing as Top 40 sounding or as-current sounding on HTG as stuff on SAWAYAMA like "Commes des Garçons", "Bad Friend" or "Tokyo Love Hotel". The comments about "radio fodder" feel like people don't actually listen to her.. What's more radio fodder than something like "Bad Friend"?

 

You suddenly don't like CHEESINESS from the "Ordinary Superstar" and "Cherry" songstress?

 

This woman has never been an alt act. She literally started out making r&b-inspired pop on soundcloud, and I say that as someone who stanned her from seeing edits of the Where U Are video on Tumblr back in 2017 and who made her very first base on here. 

 

Hold The Girl is "full of Disney ballads" when "Imagining" is the weirdest thing Clarence & Rina have been able to make since "Alterlife"? It feels like so much of the reaction to her music post-RINA is projection and literally every release since has been criticized initially as cheesy or derivative until it grows on people & then praised.

I ain't reading all that. The album is bad. No amount of essays or overuse of ellipses will change that

Edited September 10, 2022 by Jagger

[flower moon]

finally heard the rest of the songs and...

there just isnt much to come back to. the production is mostly forgettable and bland. the lyrics are hit or miss but corny in the worst way.
maybe with her past releases she had some corny lyrics, but mixed with such good/interesting production, it really worked. not so much with this.

next.

[Tasty]

9 hours ago, liammmmacbtw said:

the 1-2-3-4 punch of Holy, Your Age, Imagining, Frankenstein 

spill.

[psiIocybin_]

cmita and phantom >>>>

[BeachRat]

okay imagining ended me FOR REAL NOW

 

not a single bad song hello????? how is that possible she did THAT

[Rodrighost]

wow that holy snippet sounds really good!!

[Pendulum]

why is Forgiveness serving a Mitski track?

[Rider]

I don't get the extreme hate from some.

I absolutely love this album. While is more niche and feels tamer than SAWAYAMA, it's melodically so beautiful and the lyrics are introspective while not trying too hard either. I feel like if you don't relate to the theme you might find them cheesy. 

The album is still quite diverse but with the theme it feels more cohesive than SAWAYAMA.

 

That being said SAWAYAMA is still the better album but this is amazing too. She's a STRONG 2/2 so far

 

Frankenstein might be her best song

[nathanspears]

Holy 

 

Is the leak not HQ? It sounds a bit muddy, similar to the Hold Me Closer leak.

[willmcclure9]

IM SLAYED  

[Supervillain]

Is it me or To Be Alive sounds just like I’ll Never Love Again by Gaga?

 

I can’t believe nobody pointed this out yet, it’s so blatant to me

[popjunkie88]

why is nobody talking about how forgiveness is easily one of her best tracks ever? it’s serving euphoric 2009 pop/rock. a smasha

[Ratchet ★]

26 minutes ago, popjunkie88 said:

why is nobody talking about how forgiveness is easily one of her best tracks ever? it’s serving euphoric 2009 pop/rock. a smasha

i agree  i cant believe so many people have called it one of the weaker tracks or the weakest its one of my fav melodies on the album tbh. 

[Tyrion_LMG]

37 minutes ago, popjunkie88 said:

why is nobody talking about how forgiveness is easily one of her best tracks ever? it’s serving euphoric 2009 pop/rock. a smasha

One of my favourites for sure. So epic and euphoric.

[Alex]

this is an incohesive mess... i'm really disappointed after RINA and SAWAYAMA 

[SchmoodRing]

y'all do the most on these "alternative and indie" pop girls when they're still very much that aka POP STARS. the way y'all are making it seem like rina was somekind avant garde Shakespeare is genuinely perplexing. she has the budget now. the support. and is just now serving a more "mainstream" and polished version of what she's put out before. y'all did the same thing to marina during the love and fear era. it was annoying then. it's annoying now.  

[shookspeare]

3 minutes ago, SchmoodRing said:

y'all do the most on these "alternative and indie" pop girls when they're still very much that aka POP STARS. the way y'all are making it seem like rina was somekind avant garde Shakespeare is genuinely perplexing. she has the budget now. the support. and is just now serving a more "mainstream" and polished version of what she's put out before. y'all did the same thing to marina during the love and fear era. it was annoying then. it's annoying now.  

you just obliterated your entire point with this 

[SchmoodRing]

20 minutes ago, shookspeare said:

you just obliterated your entire point with this 

y'all act like marina created covid. love and fear is not a bad album. mid at worst but y'all made it seem like it was the equivalent to the bubonic plague was ridiculous

[ryoncé]

imagine comparing this album to Love + Fear and thinking its somehow a compliment.... 

 

yikes

[Jagger]

5 hours ago, SchmoodRing said:

y'all do the most on these "alternative and indie" pop girls when they're still very much that aka POP STARS. the way y'all are making it seem like rina was somekind avant garde Shakespeare is genuinely perplexing. she has the budget now. the support. and is just now serving a more "mainstream" and polished version of what she's put out before. y'all did the same thing to marina during the love and fear era. it was annoying then. it's annoying now.  

Except SAWAYAMA had interesting melodies, unique production, and surprise moments in many songs. Plus the lyrics were really good 

 

the only songs that have the above on this album are tracks 6-9 (and holy is a stretch honestly but I'll give it to her). The rest of the album is just corny straight forward pop ballads. And it's funny you mention budget when the production on her debut sounds 100x more expensive. Like besides the 4 uptempo songs, there's no way SAWAYAMA can be considered less alternative than this. Dynasty, XS, STFU, **** This World, Who's Gonna Save U Now, Snakeskin are all very much alternative pop. Yes, there are some mainstream moments (Bad Friend, Paradisin) but they still serve interesting melodies and moments (Bad Friend's bridge, Paradisin guitar solo). There's nothing interesting in songs like MF, Forgiveness, Phantom, or To Be Alive

[halcyonday]

the H&M playlist stans really trying to downgrade SAWAYAMA's brilliancy huh  let me NOT go there

[ahauntingnearu]

6 hours ago, SchmoodRing said:

y'all do the most on these "alternative and indie" pop girls when they're still very much that aka POP STARS. the way y'all are making it seem like rina was somekind avant garde Shakespeare is genuinely perplexing. she has the budget now. the support. and is just now serving a more "mainstream" and polished version of what she's put out before. y'all did the same thing to marina during the love and fear era. it was annoying then. it's annoying now.  

Girl