Clairo releases her most impressive album yet with ‘Charm,’ a therapeutic project guiding listeners through heartache with the help of some clear ‘70s influences.

Stream: ‘Charm’ – Clairo

After three years away, Clairo has made her return to the indie scene with Charm, an album rampant with masterful songwriting backed behind some of her most versatile and interesting production yet.

Coming off the heels of her sophomore album, Sling, Clairo’s third album shapes up to be the work of an artist who has fully grown into their sound, Charm being a satisfyingly cohesive art piece.

Maybe it’s because I live in the northeast and experience every season in all their glory and hardships, but I’m a firm believer in albums belonging to certain seasons. Clairo’s Sling felt like laying on the branch of a tree in the midst of winter, stripped, subdued, and beautifully quiet. Listening to Charm is laying on the branch of that same tree come to life in the summer sun, both embodying and imparting all the warmth, life, and vibrancy that the season offers. From Charm’s lyricism, to its composition, and even the album cover itself, Clairo’s most recent project is one that evokes the levity and lightheartedness that comes with the warmer, healing, happier months of the year.

Clairo (aka Claire Cottrill) collaborated with Leon Michels for this album, a producer who has helped her to fully lean into the ’70s influence she had begun exploring on Sling. Taking bits from musical eras can be a tricky approach on projects; one must walk a very fine line. Steal too liberally and an album can quickly become a caricature of the era that artist is referencing.

Clairo and Michels on the other hand have struck a perfect balance here, the groovy influence clear and distinct while also maintaining bits of the modern, bedroom pop sound that Clairo became known for earlier on in her career.

The album begins with “Nomad,” one of the leading singles off the album. With bass guitar you can feel in your soul, the production reflects the song’s harsh truths. Clairo is reckoning with and ultimately accepting that she would, “rather be alone than a stranger,” choosing solitude over pursuing connections with someone who will ultimately not meet her needs.

“Nomad” is reminiscent of old Clairo tracks, its speed and production choices will definitely feel familiar to fans, yet it also has the new flare of Charm’s sound, the funkadelic ‘70s of it all.

“Sexy to Someone” was the first single Clairo released to promote Charm, its upbeat rhythm and lyrical structure perfectly reflective of how Clairo is choosing to deliver her messaging on this project. A song about the inherent need to feel desired, but approached with a playful, cheeky tone aided by the production. This is a through-line throughout Charm; Clairo could’ve easily made this track (and many others) lean on the heart wrenching end of the spectrum.

On a surface level, one could hear the lyrics “Sexy to someone, it would help me out / Oh, I need a reason to get out of the house / And it’s just a little thing I can’t live without,” and assume that the track’s sounds would mirror a subject matter that is seemingly somber. Refreshingly, Clairo approaches the track with a sort of satirical nature and whimsy, almost like she’s winking to listeners when singing “it’s just a little thing I can’t live without.”

“Second Nature” is a song about innate attraction, the track as warm and playful as its lyrics. From song to song on Charm, Clairo continues to flex her prowess as a songwriter, her ability to evoke imagery that is indicative of the feelings she describes never failing to impress:

Like sap from a cedar
Rolling down to be near her
It’s second nature

“Second Nature” affirms this album’s positioning as an earthy project, one as alive and beautiful as summer greenery. The track feels full of light thanks to what Clairo and Michels choose to include in terms of sonics, such as the gentle laugh layered in the beginning of the song; choices like these not only help to strengthen the album’s identity, but also bring us closer into the worlds and dynamics of the relationships that Clairo is singing about.

Examining how intimacy and closeness with a partner can be so fleeting, “Slow Dance” sees Clairo contemplating evasive lovers.

What is it that’s keeping you alone
And leaving after we slow dance?

The instrumentation alongside the lyrics, full of flutes and drumming, brings about the exact type of feeling that Clairo unpacks on the track. The time spent with this person is tranquil and amiable, felt in the musical arrangement, but reality sinks after they realize they have “got people to turn to,” Clairo just one of many that this person entertains. The track that follows feels like a direct follow up to the lover in question.

Coming to terms with the fact that deep down, Clairo always knew that she’d ‘thank’ this partner for the time spent together, “Thank You” is an undeniably fun and honest track. Much like “Sexy to Someone,” this song could have been a tear jerker had Clairo chose it to be, and it’s invigorating to see her singing about unfavorable things in a sort of, to be frank, “it’ll be okay, f**k it”-type of way. “Thank You,” along with many of the other tracks, are sung from a ‘healed’ perspective, the lyrics feeling retrospective with Clairo at peace on the reality of the situation.

When you’re lonely, you’ll just do anything
To drink it all up, the feeling, it’s the memory
That’s when it all aligns, I can really see
What you meant to me

A simple song about the simple things, “Terrapin” embraces life’s freedom and ease, the track placement perfectly fitting right after coming to terms with the end of a relationship on “Thank You.” Satisfyingly jazzy with Clairo’s gentle hums layered in the backings are followed by calming lyricism.

We can go wherever we want
The Plains, the sand, the salt, the dust
You can say whatever you want
I don’t care, I’m already gone

Much like “Second Nature,” “Juna” sees Clairo diving into another irresistible lover, yet the track feels much more seductive and alluring than other songs from Charm.

Come to me ready
(You make me wanna) go dancing
(You make me wanna) try on feminine
(You make me wanna) go buy a new dress
(You make me wanna) slip off a new dress

Harmonizing with synth and horns, “Juna” is definitely one of the most captivating sonically and has already become a fan favorite in the short time that Charm has been out. “Juna” is someone that’s breaking down Clairo’s walls with minimal effort, or even just walking straight through them it seems. Things feel easy with this person, the song akin to the consuming infatuation when that first spark of attraction is felt.

My personal favorite, “Add Up My Love” has the same infectious energy as “Sofia” from Clairo’s first album, Immunity. A song about having bounds of love to give and yet it never being enough, all the elements work perfectly with one another. From the palpable texture brought in by the production to the marriage between Clairo’s vocals and instrumentation on the track, it was made to be played over and over again.

Even though the lyrics are more simplistic in comparison to some of her sister tracks on Charm, these components come together to create an incredibly cathartic, healing song about acceptance. The issue was never Claire’s lack of love. It was pouring out of her, and it still never would have been enough for whomever she is singing about. Despite all this, the song is still one of an overall vivacious and euphoric tone.

If I could wait for a time
To be sad about it, sad about it
I’d choose a day when you’ve gone away
And I’m all alone, upstate, all the way upstate

Do you miss my hands
hangin’ on the back of your neck?
It’s just somethin’ I’m into
Do you miss my name?
Said it in between your breath
I remember when I see the moon

Add up my love (Ooh)
Add up my love (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Honey, was it enough? (Ooh)
Is it ever enough? (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

Another track about a dodgy lover, “Echo” slows things down for a moment, Clairo softly pleading for her love with this person to be echoed out into the world.

Our love is meant to be shared
While our love goes nowhere

Both lyrics and production are stripped back on this song, especially in comparison to the rest of the album, perhaps to reflect the secretive, casual nature of the relationship that she’s singing about.

“Glory of the Snow” sees Clairo looking back fondly on a past relationship, one that she may not have been able to look back on with such fondness before this very moment.

I pull on the strings that binds me
to the memories of you
The way I loved you
I push on the door
The one I’ve ignored
that leads me to you

“Glory of the Snow” is the realization that Clairo can look back on a relationship with peace and admiration after reflecting on it previously brought about chaos in her mind. The serenity we find after finally grieving the loss of a connection is what Glory of the Snow feels like, honing further in on the Charm’s themes of healing.

Ending on an incredibly profound note, “Pier 4” unpacks all the side effects that come from loving so deeply, or loving not so deeply, and everything that comes with baring your soul to someone. After giving so much of yourself, and sometimes to no avail, the heart can become rough and rigid, “Pier 4” examining that very process.

Opened my hands and I know I’ve shed some
When close is not close enough
Where’s the fun in it? And now I’m too tough
From close being just too much

From being so close to love, but things just aren’t right, to getting so close that fear takes over, “Pier 4” is a stunning examination of vulnerability and how it could be the very thing that leads to putting up walls, past heartaches standing guard outside. Coming after a beautiful mix of tracks that, for the most part, are restorative and reparative, makes this final track especially impactful, a satisfying end to a beautiful piece of art.

With Charm, Clairo has proven yet again that she is an incredibly skilled songwriter.

Her ability to curate the essences of specific moments, taking us through some of her most earnest and genuine thoughts and relationships, is something that we only see a few times in a generation. Charm was well worth the wait, an album that will assuredly allow fans to have their fix of Clairo for years to come.

Clairo begins her North American Charm Tour in September; find tickets and more information here. The album is available on all major streaming platforms.

— —

:: stream/purchase Charm here ::

:: connect with Clairo here ::

— — — —

Connect to Clairo on
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram

Discover new music on Atwood Magazine

 © Lucas Creighton

Charm

an album by Clairo