Single Review: Hold On

Hawkes Bay singer songwriter Ella Pollett released her second single Hold On on the 20th of November.

The 16 year old songwriter has already celebrated success with Hold On, with the song taking out the top prize in the solo category at this year’s regional Smokefree Rockquest competition.

Following on from her debut single Fireflies, released earlier this year, Hold On is a simple acoustic track. Beginning with twinkling acoustic picking, Ella’s thoughtful lyrics set a romantic scene. What starts as a heart-warming love song, quickly turns into an eerie, reflective tune, with the line “I think I’m losing you,” leading into a catchy chorus. The guitar picking is replaced by strumming as Ella belts out “Hold me for the last time, I’ll be back in a year, or maybe I’ll never see you again.” In contrast to the soothing music, the lyrics are thought provoking and reflective.

An easy listening track, Ella’s vocals are warm and pleasant in her mid register, and she flips into her head voice effortlessly. Hold On shows Ella has huge potential as an artist, the song has a clear structure and strong lyrics that paint a vivid picture. I would love to hear Hold On fully produced with more instrumentation, and hope this budding songwriter gets the opportunity to showcase this song in such a way in the future.