Listen to Rina Sawayama’s new pop ballad ‘Phantom’

nme.com:

Rina Sawayama has shared ‘Phantom’, another cut from her forthcoming album ‘Hold The Girl’ which is released next month.‘Phantom’ is a pop ballad about Sawayama reassessing her needs versus other people’s.

It follows on from last month’s ‘Hold The Girl‘ as well as ‘This Hell’ and ‘Catch Me In The Air’ which were shared earlier this year.Speaking about her new song, Sawayama said: “I realised as an adult that I have spent my whole life pleasing other people and not realising it – constantly pushing my boundaries and not realising the difference between what I wanted to do and what other people wanted from me.

Through the lyrics in the verse I’m trying to tell this story and then in the choruses I’m morning the loss of my real self.”The single comes with a visualiser – watch below.‘Hold The Girl’ is now due on September 16 via Dirty Hit, two weeks later than originally planned due to “production issues”.Meanwhile, Sawayama recently announced a US headline tour for November – find any remaining tickets here.A month prior to that tour she will embark on a UK and Ireland headline run, where a Cardiff show was recently added due to “phenomenal demand” (find tickets here).Earlier this summer the London singer-songwriter discussed how she was inspired by the “fake stories” on Taylor Swift‘s ‘Folklore’ for her new album.Sawayama, who is following up her 2020 debut album ‘SAWAYAMA’ with ‘Hold The Girl’, told Rolling Stone UK that she was influenced by Swift telling other people’s stories on her 2020 lockdown album, moving away from the autobiographical work of her past.“I remember when Taylor Swift released Folklore, I was like, ‘This bitch is writing about fake stories and she just wrote a whole album.