On 'Hold The Girl,' pop rebel rinasawayama channels her twisted visions into straight-ahead tunes with arena-ready confidence. Here's our review.
“This Hell” sets the tone, lashing out at homophobes with a brash mix of disco and yeehaw country — the intro has synthesized horse neighs and a quote from Shania Twain, declaring “Let’s go, girls!” “Catch Me in the Air” comes to terms with her mother, in a witty trip through Nineties radio, mixing guitar from the Smashing Pumpkins and vocals inspired by Gwen Stefani and the Corrs, with clubby beats from Madonna producer Stuart Price.
She’s at her weirdest and best when she ramps up the tempo for kinkier sonic twists and turns. “Your Age” is a mix of bhangra and electro-warp sound effects, as she tries to process some early trauma. She keeps asking, “Now that I’m your age/I just can’t imgaine/Why did you do it, what the hell were you thinking?” Then all of a sudden, the music cuts dead and she spits “You fucked up my life.”
“Frankenstein” is her peak, a high-energy meditation on the strange love between the mad scientist and the monster. She begs for a Dr. Frankenstein to take control of her and rebuild her — “please put me together” — until she breaks down in the chant, “I don’t want to be a monster anymore.” She lusts to be the perfect laboratory creation , yet she also wants to escape and find her authentic self.
She started writing these songs via Zoom with her trustiest collaborators, producer Clarence Clarity and co-writer Lauren Aquilina. But it seems the isolation of lockdown made her bolder about looking inside herself. The most exciting thing aboutis that you can’t even guess where Sawayama might go next. She’s a cultural-pastiche artist on so many different levels — she’s even co-starring with Keanu Reeves inEditor’s Note: You may have noticed that we got rid of the stars on our reviews.
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