"Minor Feelings" is a song recorded by Rina Sawayama, opening track off her sophomore studio album Hold the Girl, which was released by Dirty Hit on 16 September 2022. Sawayama co-wrote the song with Lauren Aquilina and Vic Jamieson, and its production was handled by Barney Lister and Clarence Clarity.
Background
The track title was inspired by Minor Feelings from Korean-American poet Cathy Park Hong, who wrote a "collection of essays" with her own experiences to support her arguments on the marginalized community feelings.[1] "It's the name she gives to this collective feeling that a lot of Asian Americans have about racial micro-aggressions, and I really connected with that, because for me it was a collection of all these minor feelings that has now led to a pretty major shutdown of emotions," said Sawayama for Apple Music.[2]
During a listening party for Hold the Girl on 16 September 2022, Sawayama revealed that "Minor Feelings" was originally an interlude placed somewhere in the middle of the album, before realizing that it "would be the perfect beginning" of Hold the Girl.[3]
Composition
"Minor Feelings" is a "short, atmospheric" track that opens the album Hold the Girl and, according to Thomas Bedenbaugh from Slant magazine, it "introduce[s] several themes" that Sawayama will go on "to explore across the album's remaining 12 tracks."[4] "All my life I've felt out of place," Sawayama "croons" over "minimal backdrop", according to David Smyth from Evening Standard.[5] The song opens with a sample of the 2019 British coming-of-age film Rocks. At the end of the song, with raining sounds, it is transitioned into the next track "Hold the Girl".
Musically, Sawayama wanted to play with the minor and the major chords in the music of the song, "so in the chorus when I say 'minor feelings' it's minor and then major when I say 'majorly getting me down.'"[2]
Critical reception
While reviewing the album Hold the Girl, Rho Chung from The Skinny felt that "Minor Feelings" opens the album with a "heartfelt, almost gospel-esque meditation" on traumas that "follow us into adulthood".[6] Comparing the song with "Dynasty", the opening track off Rina's 2020 debut album Sawayama, David Smyth from Evening Standard felt that Rina might have "calmed down a little."[5] Writing for Gigwise, Susan Hansen felt that with "Minor Feelings" Sawayama's existence is "uncovered quite early" on the record. She added, "[it's] a difficult feeling that emerges as a flashback from childhood, but then gets processed through the eyes of an adult."[7]
John Amen from PopMatters wrote: "'Minor Feelings' is a promising blend of glammy vocals and synthy splashes, an arena-friendly production that establishes the project’s commitment to mainstream appeal."[8] Jordan Currie from Exclaim! felt that the song mirrors similar feelings Sawayama explored on her 2020 debut album, and described it as a "brief but mystical" proclamation of yearning to belong and finding one's place in the world as a queer Japanese-British woman.[9] Annabel Nugent from The Independent described the song as a "lovely but uncharacteristically sombre" opener for Sawayama, "an artist whose default setting is 11."[10]
Live performances
"Minor Feelings" was used as the opening song for all shows on Sawayama's Hold the Girl Tour, which began on 12 October 2022 in the United Kingdom and concluded on 27 February 2023 in Norway. However, the song was removed from the setlist for the revamped Hold the Girl: Reloaded Tour (2023).
On 12 March 2023, Sawayama was invited to perform at Elton John's Oscar Party in West Hollywood Park, where she performed "Minor Feelings".[11]
| Date | Type | Event | Venue | City | 
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Fundraising | Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party | West Hollywood Park | 
|
| Tour | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Hold the Girl Tour | 12 Oct 2022–27 February 2023 (All dates) | 41 |
| Total: | 41 | |
Lyrics
How am I supposed to feel
When you're telling me that nothing in my life is real?
When you throw your words and hide behind a plastic shield
I just sit and smile
Writing my own fairytales
Building forts between the sofa and the windowsill
Dreaming of the day I'm tall enough to save myself
But I was just a child
What it takes to recognize
Emotions that I try to hide
The more I keep them all inside
The more they bury me alive
All my life, I've felt out of place
All my life, I've been saving face
Well, all these minor feelings
Are majorly breaking me down (Breaking me down)
All my life, you took me for a fool
All my life, you told me what to do
All these minor feelings
Are majorly getting to me now
References
- ↑ "Tickets for Rina Sawayama | Galvanizers SWG3". TicketWeb.uk (18 May 2022). Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved on 18 May 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rina Sawayama (16 September 2022). "Hold the Girl by Rina Sawayama on Apple Music". Apple Music (US). Dirty Hit. Retrieved on 16 September 2022.
- ↑ RINA SLAYWAYAMA [@rinasawayama] (16 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved on 16 September 2022. “#HoldTheGirl Track 1. Minor feelings”
- ↑ Bedenbaugh, Thomas (19 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama 'Hold the Girl' Review: Artistic Growth at the Expense of Hooks". Slant. Retrieved on 24 September 2022.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Smyth, David (16 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama - Hold the Girl review: An enjoyably unpredictable world". Evening Standard. Retrieved on 24 September 2022.
- ↑ Chung, Rho (12 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama album review: Hold the Girl". The Skinny. Retrieved on 24 September 2022.
- ↑ Hansen, Susan. "Album Review: Rina Sawayama - Hold the Girl". Gigwise. Retrieved on 24 September 2022.
- ↑ Amen, John (16 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama's 'Hold the Girl' Is a Bewildering Anticlimax". PopMatters. Retrieved on 24 March 2026.
- ↑ Currie, Jordan (12 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama Can't Hold Back on 'Hold the Girl'". Exclaim!. Retrieved on 24 March 2026.
- ↑ Nugent, Annabel (15 September 2022). "Rina Sawayama, Hold the Girl review: Pop star makes therapy fun on her ecstatic, eclectic second album". The Independent. Retrieved on 24 March 2026.
- ↑ "Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party Raises Over $9 Million". Elton John Aids Foundation (12 March 2023).
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