When Pretty Girl was uploaded on Youtube in 2017, Claire Elizabeth Cotrill, more widely known as Clairo, was suddenly brought into the limelight when the song became viral. At the time, she was a music business major at Syracuse University, but dropped out in order to pursue her growing career.
In 2019, Clairo released her debut album Immunity, disrupting the rumors that she was an industry plant with little to no talent. With Immunity, Clairo, then 20, was crowned the quintessential queen of bedroom pop.
But it seems as if Clairo has returned to the music scene in 2021 with a new sound and a drastic change in her priorities. Clairo’s sophomore record Sling, released on July 16, shows her departing from the lo-fi sound of previous projects to a more organic and acoustic melody through which she details her depressive and anxious thoughts and her longing to settle down.
Listening to Clairo’s records is like listening to a family member unfold past memories. Her unrelenting honesty is what draws people to her projects. In Sling, Clairo hones into that style of writing providing with even more clarity. Even with a 70s pop sound, reminiscent of artists like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, Clairo’s lyrics reflect current issues such as our faced-paced society and in her case, the struggle of being in the limelight.
When her debut album came out in 2019, Clairo played festivals like Camp Flog Gnaw and Primavera Sounds and was constantly doing interviews for publications such as Pitchfork, GoRadioMn, and i-D. But in her recent interview with Vogue, she said that she was so busy that “there was no time to reconsider or re-evaluate any kind of boundaries or limits I wanted for myself.” During her time on tour for Immunity, Clairo described how the anxiety and depression she had always struggled with became heighted. “I was hanging by a thread, and I can say that in full honesty,” she told Rolling Stone. “I was close to really losing my shit and not wanting to be here. I didn’t really see a reason.”
In Sling, Clairo sits down with herself, introspectively uncovering her thoughts from the past two years — using the time of quarantine to look back on her sudden launch to fame as a young adult. In “Just For Today,” a guitar-heavy track, Clairo asks softly, “Since when did taking time take all my life?” This is a common question many of us asked during quarantine, when time was paused, forcing us to look deeper within and live with ourselves. Clairo dives into the irony of getting to know yourself, wanting to discover yourself but having to deal with the painful frustration of self-reflection. This is a refreshing message to hear from a public figure, especially those who are tasked with the job of entertaining us and putting on a facade of perfection. The beauty of her words is the fact that it is both an admission of fault and a well-arrived realization.
With the more upbeat sounding track “Amoeba,” Clairo asks herself in the chorus, “Aren’t you glad that you reside in Hell and in disguise?/Nobody yet everything, a pool to shed your memory/Could you say you even tried?/You haven’t called your family twice/I hope tonight goes diffеrently/But I show up to the party just to leavе.” The chorus slides through the perfect combination of piano and drums while illustrating the chastisement people put themselves in when their mental illnesses destabilize them. The propensity for people to stay away from the ones they love while grappling with depression or suffering from anxiety is illustrated through a series of self-questions. Clairo’s analogy of a party gives her the space to express disappointment in the fact that though she makes an effort to overcome these mental obstacles, she isn’t really present in a life that she’s supposed to enjoy. These lyrics, though simple, powerfully address themes of existentialism and internal conflict.
A small faction of Clairo’s fan base is a bit displeased by the departure from her previous sound. While I understand the desire for consistency, especially if a particular sound is what captured fans in the first place, Sling allows her to achieve a new level of maturity with a much more stripped down sound paired with honest lyrics. Sling works in Clairo’s favor, pushing her to much needed clarity. The album imitates the flower Zinnias, which is the namesake of the fourth track. Like the small, round blossom, it is not ostentatious. Instead it finds beauty in its simplicity.
