Review: Clairo – Charm

Clairo
Charm
Allaire Studios, Diamond Mine Recording
Street: 07.12
Clairo = Phoebe Bridgers + Joni Mitchell + Faye Webster

Claire Cottrill, professionally known as Clairo, has me enchanted with her third studio album Charm. The album chronicles small simple moments where she was taken by someone or something or more to the point, charmed. Reminiscent of 60s and 70s jazz and folk, her use of the keyboard, flute, clarinet and saxophone create a record that is instrumentally driven just as much as it is lyrically. 

If you were to get a good look inside Clairo’s brain, it’s a safe bet to assume her stream of consciousness is similar to every single 20-something out there. Her relatability is what makes her special. Produced with Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), the groovy beats and soft lyrics center around loving and feeling so deeply and so intensely, it’s almost as if there are centripetal forces and gravitational pulls keeping you in orbit with another person. 

The first single, “Sexy to Someone”, perfectly encapsulates the mystery and limerence attached to someone new. Imagine you’re tipsy at a bar and you’ve found someone alluring simply by the way they dance or sip their gin and tonic. “Nomad” is perfect for looking out the window on a train to everywhere and nowhere. “I’d run the risk of losing everything / sell all my things, become nomadic / I’d run the risk and just in case I might / Sell all my things and become the night.” 

The intimacy of Clairo’s voice and the lyrics allows me to envision sitting at a table in a jazz bar. Listening to the gentle tone makes me think we’re the only two people that exist. She said it’s all about “fleeting moments … where I’ve been charming or have been charmed.”It’s about catching a glimpse of someone and not being able to let them go all week and creates a narrative vivid and relatable to the listener. 

“Second Nature” is carefree and floaty. She sings about the ease of loving someone who was put in your path by divine intervention. “I see kismet sinking in / it’s second nature / like the sap from a cedar / rolling down to be near her.” 

In “Add Up My Love” her voice slides effortlessly across the piano and flute backing her up. It’s up tempo and hopeful…until you focus on the lyrics. “Add up my love / will it be enough / was it ever enough?” 

The slow vocals in “Pier 4” evoke melancholy and the loneliness of being young and dumb and in love with everyone you meet. The record perfectly rounds out her first two studio albums Immunity (2019) and Sling (2021). Each album is almost a continuation of the next. 

Her soft, breathy voice against the drum beats and piano trills on “Terrapin” make for a song that is more impressive instrumentally than lyrically. The lyrics were mismatched and overpowered by the sound — though certainly still worth a listen. The psychedelic synths, Wurlizter and acoustic guitar in “Echo” create a unique sound that worked for me. 

In a feature published by the New Yorker, Clairo admits that “everyone, including me, has no idea what the fuck they’re doing. That can be really comforting, and also really annoying. This record has so much yearning, so much of me shaking the other person and being, like, ‘Why not? Why can’t we?’” The second  time around, I listened to this album on the floor of my bedroom with the window open, two birds on the sill, as if compelled to sit and listen for a while. I closed my eyes — the birds my reverent company — and reminded myself that if Clairo doesn’t know what she’s doing or what the fuck is going on, it’s okay that I don’t either.

Needless to say, I’ll be listening to Charm for the rest of the summer and probably the rest of my twenties. –Leah Call

Listen to this episode read by the author on SLUG Soundwaves.

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