Rina Sawayama returns today with her sophomore album, Hold the Girl, the follow-up to her 2020 debut album, Sawayama. The Japanese British pop singer-songwriter began working on the project during the pandemic, and since she couldn’t record in Nashville as originally intended, she began brainstorming with longtime collaborators like Lauren Aquilina and Clarence Clarity over Zoom. The approach paid off.
“We made this massive whiteboard, put loads of songs on there, made a huge playlist,” Sawayama told Elle. They binged on songs by everyone from Kelly Clarkson and The Corrs to Bloc Party, and the result was an eclectic album that Sawayama previewed with five rather unique singles.
The first of those, “This Hell,” nods to Shania Twain, and Sawayama has emphasized the influence of country music on the album. “Country music is not trying to complicate things,” she told Pitchfork. “The important thing about country songwriting is that you’re telling the true reality about what’s happening to you, and that’s something I’ve been trying to stay true to.”
