Love and Self-Reflection in Clairo’s Charm
Claire Cottrill, professionally known as Clairo, is one of the most beloved singer-songwriters of our generation. Since she found fame online nearly a decade ago with her song “Pretty Girl,” many of her fans have grown alongside her, accompanied by her music throughout the twists and turns of their teens and early adulthood. While the now-26-year-old often reflects on the trials and tribulations of growing up and making mistakes in the public eye, her third studio album, Charm, embraces personal evolution and the nonsensical nature of coming-of-age. Released in July of 2024, the 38-minute LP is a ruminative exploration of the self-transformation that comes with love. It invites listeners into a dreamy account of the singer’s experiences navigating relationships in her twenties. Charm reveals a deeply contemplative side of the romantic experience and personal growth while carrying Clairo’s signature sensitivity and vulnerable lyricism that makes her music so easy to fall in love with.
“Nomad,” the first track on the album, is the trek through the purgatory of forgetting someone. The flowing, delicate musicality accompanies an allegory of nomadic life and sailing out to sea alone to represent the process of finding oneself again after a breakup. The singer laments, “I’d rather be alone than a stranger” and “I’d rather wake up alone than be reminded/Of how it was a dream this time.” It’s simultaneously a yearning plea for that person to come back and to let you go. The track is movingly personal and specific, yet it’s a feeling that most people will experience at one time or another. But while it’s lyrically melancholy, somehow the song is also hopeful; the musical structure invites introspection and presents an opportunity for personal growth. After all, while it often feels like it in the moment, these feelings don’t last forever. The song is aware of this fact without losing its authenticity. “Nomad” beautifully sets the mood of the album and invites listeners into the Clairo’s inner world.
“Second Nature,” on the other hand, explores the supercharged emotions of falling in love. “Second Nature” is destiny, fate, kismet; it’s when you meet someone and suddenly your life just seems to make sense. The lyrics describe a person that is new and yet has always been there; that you met not so long ago but that somehow you’ve known forever. “And when you get in my ear/I see kismet sinking in/It’s second nature.” It’s second nature in that it’s easy, but also in that it actually feels like nature - like biology, like an essential part of life on Earth - to be so in love. Later in the song, the singer enters a sort of plea: do you feel this kismet too? Do I mean as much to you as you do to me? It reveals a level of insecurity that comes with such intense feelings. There is a vulnerability in giving so much of yourself up to be inspected, understood, and known, as well as a fear that maybe you’re thinking too deeply, or you’re just caught up in dramatics. It’s another track on the album that puts words to a feeling that is hard to describe but easy to identify with. “Second Nature” is also, more simply, a euphonious and enjoyable song about embracing the force that is falling in love.
On a similar note, “Juna,” a melodic, summery tune, is the first sense of falling. It’s an invitation to come closer, see more. The song feels like a flowy dress, a kiss on the cheek, giggling and talking at night. It’s the early days of something new - but, already, you’re in so deep that you can’t think logically. It reflects a desire that goes beyond your body to your soul, and the sensuality of it is audible in both the music and the lyrics. “You make me want to go dancing/You make me want to try on feminine/You make me want to go buy a new dress/You make me want to slip off a new dress.” While writing the song, Clairo stated that she initially was not expecting it to be a fan favorite, yet “Juna” is the most-streamed song on the album since its release. As the album continues to run its course, songs such as “Glory of the Snow,” “Thank You,” and “Sexy to Someone” continue the trend of romantic introspection in various forms, and Clairo remains laser-focused on personal expression through it all.
Throughout Charm, Clairo explores a series of small moments in love and relationships; some as a vehicle for self-discovery, some as a hopeful beginning, and some lightheartedly poking fun at modern romance and desire. But what, in the end, do all of these small moments really mean? Yes, sometimes it’s great to simply be sexy to someone, but what happens when one day that’s just not enough? What if, as occasionally happens, that new kismet romance fizzles out before becoming anything serious, leaving you wounded and back where you started? This is the perspective shift of the album’s closer, “Pier 4,” a track that upends all we have learned from Charm’s earlier anecdotes. The singer laments, “And when you find you’re at the pier/Playing out moments when there was a touch/With strangers touching everywhere.” It’s the perspective of someone who finds themselves alone at the end of the day, realizing that even after all of these universal moments in love, nobody can reach you; still, nobody knows you. It’s not enough and too much to think about at the same time. Maybe you’re so fed up and cynical and touch-starved that you’d throw your phone off the side of a ship and sail out to sea - become nomadic. It’s a moment that ties the entire album into a circular narrative and brings us back to “Nomad” and the very beginning. Here, the self becomes the subject and the purpose of the album.
Charm frames each of its tracks as a storytelling device. It’s a way to probe into different experiences in romance that may not last, but are significant nonetheless. Each song describes personal - yet easily relatable - feelings that come from traversing the tumultuous romantic climate of one’s early twenties and the modern day. Clairo reflects on love between two people throughout the album. Most importantly, however, she reflects on herself in love, as a person and a driving force in her own romantic stories. She encourages her listeners to do the same. Each moment of the album is presented as an opportunity to discover who we are and what we desire from life. Throughout her career, Clairo has explored the worlds of bedroom pop, folk, and soft rock, accompanying each new musical journey with vulnerable lyricism that presents love as a yearning, breathless endeavor. Charm stands out as both a stunning addition to her evolution and prowess as an artist and a record of personal metamorphosis.