Clairo Echoes a Love Destined to Be Shared Through Every Fiber of 'Charm'
Clairo has always charmed listeners with her wistful and suave sound. It’s easy to be enamored by her signature style, and fans have been eager for more from the indie pop sensation after her three-year hiatus since the release of Sling in 2021. Clairo began teasing a new era back in April, quickly confirming thereafter that her third studio album, Charm, would be released in the summer. Clairo continues to revolutionize and showcase her musical expertise within her latest record, pouring every ounce of intimacy and summer loving into every single track. Charm is a giddy and hopeful love letter to our crushes, lovers, and all of the beautiful people who manage to win over our hearts.
Oozing desire to find the perfect relationship, the lead single “Sexy to Someone,” successfully introduced fans to what Clairo had in store for Charm. The track dons an incredibly personal revelation of feeling like one needs a relationship with someone else to understand themselves as well; she writes, “Sexy to somebody, 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.” Clairo presents the Charm era as one fueled by the passion of attraction and infatuation, all covered with a silky-smooth aura that makes you feel like you are levitating. “Sexy to Someone” has it all, serving as a gaudy summer anthem and a deep reflection on what it means to find love.
The alluring atmosphere of “Sexy to Someone” was just but a sneak peek of the glory Charm has in store for listeners. Clairo works hand-in-hand with producer and musician Leon Michels to assemble the show-stopping compositions of Charm, and they prove to be an unstoppable duo; Charm takes an upbeat bedroom pop sound and infuses it with sophisticated layers of jazz and playful wisps of folky baroque, weaving glamor, elegance, and delicacy through each and every track of the record. Listeners ride along the waves of falling in and out of love, invoking the whole spectrum of emotional complexity through carefully crafted lyricism, gentle vocal performance, and perfectly orchestrated arrangements.
Clairo reinvents romance through her musicality in Charm. Songs like “Terrapin” immediately leave listeners fawning over them. The gorgeous piano, percussion, and synths throughout the song create a tender and sensual ambiance that harbors unparalleled levels of musical affinity. Clairo fantasizes about the possibility of blossoming romantic adventure and the human struggle of overcoming our own coyness and reservations when it comes to falling in love. “Terrapin” is a glossy daydream of a track that perfectly captures everything that Charm is about.
“Terrapin” is followed by “Juna,” a track that divulges a love where you can completely put your guard down with someone. Clairo sings, “I don’t have to try / I don’t have to think / With you, there’s no pretending / You know me, you know me / And I just might know you too,” a soft acceptance of the beauty of authenticity and surrender within romance. The song is sonically bright with fluid synths and sparkling chimes that radiate throughout the song; a groovy saxophone and chipper hums wrap up the affectionate luminosity at the conclusion of the song, tying together the track with a beautiful bow.
In addition to the arrangement, “Juna” demonstrates how elegant Clairo’s singing throughout Charm really is. Her velvety vocals melt flawlessly throughout the song, blending with the instrumentation for a sultry and sweet resonation. The background vocals and the harmonies throughout the entirety of Charm really push the album to the next level, and the gentle lower melodies, the overlapping performance, and the introductory oohs in “Juna” show Clairo‘s vocal talent and her fine-tuned ability to immerse listeners in the world she builds through her music. “Juna” is nothing short of captivating, a track that leaves you blushing just as if you, too, are in love with Juna.
While Charm seems all lovey-dovey at its surface, Clairo also explores a hyper awareness of all aspects of love throughout her lyricism in Charm. The record opens with a cautious and hopeless romance in “Nomad.” The song investigates avoiding love entirely in order to evade the pain that comes alongside it, as Clairo sings, “I’d rather be alone than a stranger / You’d come to visit me late at night / I’d rather wake up alone than be reminded / Of how it was a dream this time.” Clairo explores the reality of how fear often injects itself into love in “Nomad,” and the rest of Charm remains haunted by this reluctance. Her investigation of the dynamics of love is all-encompassing, conveying both unconscious and conscious desires of the heart and mind.
“Slow Dance” poignantly demonstrates these very complexities and difficulties of love, investigating the highs and lows of a fading relationship. The arrangement is simply stunning; a waltzing electronic piano and whispering winds create a sensitive and vulnerable mist that surrounds the song. Clairo questions a relationship with a love that never seems like it quite ends but also never manages to fully be there in “Slow Dance,” imbuing a lingering chill as “candles burn out and the record is faded down.”
Self-doubt and responsibility continue to hang underneath the surface with the track “Add Up My Love.” The track sounds strikingly similar to “Sexy to Someone,” yet Clairo flips the narrative of the track from the longing of “Sexy to Someone” to coping with the aftermath of a love now absent. After the passion she long searched for slowly slips out of her own grasp, Clairo investigates everything she did in the relationship and begs to find out what went wrong, singing, “Do you miss my hands hangin’ on the back of your neck? / It’s just something I’m into / Do you miss my name? Said it in between your breath / I remember when I see the moon.” The immense fear that we will never be enough for the ones we love weighs significantly on our shoulders and is never easy to talk about, but Clairo remains both candid and eloquent in her lyricism in “Add Up My Love;” the track is one of the strongest testaments to Clairo’s ability to stir emotions and impact the audience with her music.
Clairo continues to wear her heart on her sleeve with the album’s closing track, “Pier 4.” “Pier 4” envisions a future in which you aim to just disappear and hide away from love as a result of the fear that searching for love will never prove worth it after all. She poses the question, “What’s the cost of it, of being loved / When close is not close enough? / Where’s your line, when do you draw / When close is not close enough?” “Pier 4” is an emotionally riveting ballad, with the delicate strings and Clairo’s soft voice fully enthralling listeners even as the production of the song continues to build in intensity. “Pier 4” ends the album with a somber tone of acceptance and peace at the closure of the relationship, showing the nuance of love and loss and the end of a relationship.
However, Clairo does not encourage love to be seen only in the context of a beginning and an end. In “Thank You,” she actually encourages just the opposite; she sings, “I put my pride on the line / ‘Cause when I met you, I knew it / I’d thank you for your time.” There is a beginning and an end to every love story, but what truly matters is the journey of passion you get to share with your lover. Love is a winsome, luxurious, and terrifying expedition, but it defines our existence as human beings.
Charm by Clairo is an unapologetically romantic examination of life, revealing what it feels like to fall in love first-hand. The form of it may change, but our love will never truly leave us, and with Charm, Clairo wisely encourages us to hold on to it as tightly as we can and thank love for its time.