Clairo (Claire Cottrill) released her third studio album Charm on July 12.
The 25-year-old native of Massachusetts started making music and posting demos on Soundcloud. Her career took off after the release of Pretty Girl, a single that defined the bedroom pop music genre in 2017. Cottrill has had one of the most profound musical evolutions among contemporary artists. In only three albums, she has completely swapped her previous bedroom-pop synths for 70s-inspired wind instrumentals.
What does Charm mean?
“Charm is a feeling you have,” said Cottrill for Crack Magazine. “When you’re charmed, it’s that perfect blend of being goofy-eyed over a person — platonically, romantically — and not knowing how long it will last.”
Many themes of Charm explore different experiences of relationships and their complexities. Clairo also describes charm as something that “happens when two people meet. There’s a level of mystery. It’s this cloud that you can’t really see through, but you’re really interested in knowing more,” in an interview for Vulture. “I tried to tread those lines with this record,” she said.
Cotrill released Sexy to Someone on May 23. The song describes the feeling of wanting someone to find Cottrill attractive to add something interesting to her everyday existence. With lines like “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,” a whimsy clarinet and a light and airy sound in Cottrill’s voice creates a sweet and warm sounding song.
Track Progression on Charm
The opening track, Nomad, serves as the ideal song to transition between Cottrill’s sophomore album Sling and Charm. The track was first premiered by Cottrill on the Sling Tour in 2022 as an unreleased song. Clairo threatens to sell all her belongings, becoming nomadic because she would rather “be alone than be a stranger.” She contemplates the fine line between fostering a deeper connection with someone or retreating to avoid the inevitability of being hurt.
Juna has become a fan-favorite track, and Cottrill performed the song live on the Tonight Show on July 17. The track is a sweet and dreamy song about being captivated by someone and feeling secure in a relationship with another person. It carries a sense of confidence with the lyrics, “You make me wanna go dancing, you make me wanna try on feminine, you make me wanna buy a new dress, you make me wanna slip off a new dress” and security with the lyric, “with you, there’s no pretending / You know me.”
Each song on Charm feels unique, from the upbeat piano in Thank You to the mysterious atmosphere heard in the instrumentals on Echo. Pier 4 feels like the ideal rounding out of the album, and the most gut-wrenching lyrically, where Cottrill questions, “What’s the cost of it all, of being loved / When close is not close enough?”
@whor3chata_ via TikTok
The Making of Charm
Clairo worked with producer Leon Michels on Charm. Michels is the leader of the soul project El Michels Affair. He was a touring member of The Black Keys and a co-founder of The Arcs. He is also co-founder of Truth & Soul Records and Big Crown Records.
Cottrill reflected on working with Michels saying “working with Leon changed my perspective and changed my world so much, especially because we were doing so much of the album live,” for Vulture Magazine. “We focused a lot on performance and the energy in the room.”
Starting on her sophomore album Sling, Clairo masterfully incorporates wind instruments like flutes and clarinets throughout her work. She discusses that Michels works extensively with these instruments and always had some on hand in the studio. They could easily add these instruments to add them to the tracks in five minutes if she wanted to. “How fun is it to be able to immediately put clarinet or flute or saxophone onto a song you’re working on? It was always in the moment. I don’t think it was ever thought out too much,” Cottrill said for Vulture.
Michels told Crack Magazine that when working with Clairo she had a clear vision for Charm and how she wanted the record to come to fruition. “She’s so sure of what she wants and what her music is supposed to sound like.”
Clairo’s Music Development
Clairo began writing and posting music online starting from when she was only 13 years old. Clairo released her EP Diary 001 in 2018 when she was just 19 years old. The EP solidified Cottrill’s songwriting skills and that she would be an artist to keep an eye on throughout her career. Diary 001 includes the track 4Ever which is still incredibly popular amongst Clairo fans. In only a few years time, Cottrill has completely changed her sound and music style.
Cottrill released Immunity in August 2019. Rostam Batmangli, one of the founding members of Vampire Weekend, produced the album. Immunity continued to develop sonically, building off of the sound of Diary 001, but with more detail and soft rock influences. The themes of Immunity became more mature. Songs on the album revolve around self-discovery, Cottrill’s sexuality, and understanding one’s fragility.
Clairo’s work on Sling and Charm
Sling revealed a completely different side to Clairo’s musical abilities. Cottrill wrote the album during the pandemic when she was also living with her family in Atlanta, Georgia. Sling was released in July 2021. Jack Antonoff produced the album. The album is a result of slowing life down, contemplating themes of motherhood, depression, and introspective thinking.
In her interview with Crack Magazine, Cottrill said “Honestly, I look back at those two records [Immunity and Sling] and see someone trying to become an adult and doing it in front of a lot of people.” In an interview for Rolling Stone Cottrill describes the shift between Immunity and Sling, saying “Immunity is talking about all the things I feel, but Sling is getting to the root of the problem.”
Charm takes the themes and musical development Cottrill began exploring in Sling and heightens them to new places. “I felt like Sling was a good exercise in being serious. I enjoyed that, but when I think about what I listen to or what I’m inspired by on a normal basis, it’s usually more upbeat and more playful,” she said for Vulture.
Charm feels like a full-circle album for Cottrill, with the artist reemerging into the public eye after such a retrospective album like Sling. Charm sounds like the unique and upbeat sounds from Immunity beautifully blended with the deep and personal lyrics of Sling, all while simultaneously sounding altogether unique from both albums.
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Inspirations for Charm
One of Cottrill’s biggest musical inspirations for Charm is Harry Nilsson, which she has discussed in various interviews. In an interview with The New Yorker, Cottrill says “I was really inspired by the silliness of Harry Nilsson, and the vocals of Margo Guryan and Blossom Dearie. Those three people are all really great songwriters, and their music is very touching, but it also never feels like they’re taking themselves too seriously.”
The influence of letting loose and having fun is heard in the song Juna, where Clairo mimics the sound of a trumpet with her own voice at the end of the song in opposition to using an actual trumpet.
In her interview with Vulture, Cottrill listed The Beach Boys, Margo Guryan, and Blossom Dearie as additional inspirations. When describing how these artists and their music relate to the overall theme of Charm she said “When I started thinking about what all these influences had in common…it’s that you can’t really put your finger on them. Being silly and serious, being sensual but kind of far away. There’s this aura of mysterious energy around all of them that brings you in. And to me, that’s extremely charming.”
Clairo will be going on tour in support of the album starting in the fall. Her residency shows in New York City and LA have sold out. Tickets for the remaining shows on the Charm Tour will be on sale on Friday, July 29. Alice Phoebe Lou will be the supporting act.
If you’re looking for more new music releases this summer, make sure to check out Summer Hits To Come.
