Charm is the feeling you get when you look out of a train window and see beautiful scenery. It’s having dinner with friends on a summer’s evening with the windows wide open after a few drinks. It’s a Saturday morning stroll to the market, coffee in hand, sun shining brightly. Clairo’s latest album captures the essence of these moments of simple happiness, which give life all its beauty.
In her third opus, Claire Cottrill moves away from the sound of Sling, her previous album, to offer a palette more marked by jazz and R&B. Her voice, as soft and perfectly identifiable as ever, retains the melodic whisper that made her such a success, but she approaches it with more confidence. Charm‘s Clairo is a far cry from the one who made a name for herself on YouTube in 2017 with the song Pretty Girls. More mature and thoughtful, she explores themes that resonate with her life as a 26-year-old adult.
Charm is a sensual album about seduction: charming and being charmed. The lyrics remain in the elegance of romance, capturing this subtle quest for attraction and desire. In Juna, for example, she sings “you make me wanna go dancing/ you make me wanna try on feminine”, expressing a desire to let go and seduce. In Sexy to Someone, she confides “sexy to someone, it would help me out / oh I need a reason to get out of the house” suggesting a need for affirmation and the desire to charm another. These lyrics may recall the mood of Lana Del Rey’s albums, which often explore the theme of seduction, between desire and vulnerability, through similar poetry.
The musical arrangements, combining flute, saxophone, slide guitar and keyboards, take us back to the 70s, but with more contemporary lyrics that remind us of the times. All in all, Charm is an atmospheric album, an excellent dish to be savored in a hushed atmosphere, with the lights dimmed and a glass of wine in hand.
