Clairo Contemplates Nomadic Life in New Single

“Charm” album cover

There is a recurring theme from Charm’s two current lead singles: filling the cracks in life with shoddy and wishful romances, allowing yourself to be charmed into places for the sake of stepping outside of your own gaze. As Nomad runs its course, Clairo seems to be slowly unraveling out of the grasp of someone who has her “locked in” to a relationship that is heading next to nowhere. The song is produced by Clairo herself and collaborator Leon Michels.

The title comes from the first verse where she admits to being prepared to bet on everything and sell her things to be nomadic, a word that she makes synonymous to conforming and morphing into the places and forms imposed upon her, all in the name of having someone else’s company. 

Throughout each pre-chorus, she self-rationalizes, referring to herself as “cynical” and “touch starved and shameless”. It seems that she is close to a conclusion in each chorus: “I’d rather wake up alone than be reminded/ Of how it was a dream this time”, but her back-and-forth logic remains cyclical until the very end.

Clairo in the studio, via Instagram

Wurlitzer piano, synthesizer, flute, and a woozy guitar tone form a melody that is whimsical and windstrewn, glued together by electric upright bass and sly drum patterns as it guides the sails of the ship she is going to take off the grid and “Around the world to find/ Oh where you hid the key”.

 Modern yet rustic, Clairo is influenced by the greats from every era of music: sounds adjacent to Joni Mitchell, Roberta Flack, Sade, and The Sundays make appearances in her more recent projects. After releasing two records that each lean into different storylines and genres, Charm seems to be on a path of combining their efforts into something refreshing and compelling.

Nomad is the second release of the record’s rollout process, but the first in the tracklist and directly preceding lead single Sexy to Someone. It’s unclear right now if there will be another track before the full album comes out on July 12th. You can listen now via Apple Music, YouTube, the Spotify link below, or wherever you jam out.