On the ultimate observe of her third album, Clairo finds herself on the pier, “enjoying out moments when there was a contact.” Only a contact: extra intimate than pining from afar, positive, however not a kiss and even a lot as an embrace. These sorts of experiences—when the reminiscence of a tiny gesture captures the whole thing of your consideration—are hallmarks of Claire Cottrill’s finest songwriting, just like the flushed cheeks of “Baggage” or the objectifying glances of “Shirt.” On Attraction, she retains her consideration to those fleeting touches, however pairs them with a lush, wealthy manufacturing, sinking deeper right into a gentle rock sound that’s directly smoldering and eccentric.
Attraction shouldn’t be a dramatic shift within the method of Clairo’s second album, 2021’s Sling. After she achieved viral fame as a teen on the energy of her sweetly lo-fi YouTube uploads, Clairo launched Immunity, her spectacular Rostam Batmanglij-produced debut. Then she took a left flip. She moved to upstate New York, teamed with producer Jack Antonoff, and holed up within the woods to make Sling. The place Immunity confirmed off Clairo’s kinship with bed room pop darlings like Frankie Cosmos, Sling worshiped on the altar of Carole King—a pastoral, folky album that appeared completely bored with chasing her previous or reaching for brand spanking new pop hits.
To make Attraction, Clairo labored with one other new producer, Leon Michels, identified for his work in the El Michels Affair and as a member of the Dap-Kings. Collectively, they dug deeper into the ’70s palette Clairo developed on Sling and crafted preparations dense with Wurlitzer, mellotron, piano, and organ. “Sluggish Dance” ends with fluttering flute and clarinet; “Terrapin” is crammed with piano thrives. If Antonoff’s manufacturing on Sling typically felt cool or atmospheric, Attraction emits a palpable heat. Plus, most of those songs groove. Clairo’s vocals stay, by and huge, hushed, however because of the golden-hued manufacturing, her voice comes throughout extra like a murmur in a crush’s ear than a sheepish mumble on a primary date.
The intimate experiences that Clairo examines on Attraction must do, she’s mentioned, with “fleeting moments … the place I’ve been charming or have been charmed” and the fantasies such moments can produce. It’s a temper Attraction’s sensual confidence and retro propulsion readily conjures: “You make me wanna/Go purchase a brand new gown,” she sings on “Juna,” “You make me wanna/Slip off a brand new gown.” On “Horny to Somebody,” a comfy music about eager to be wished, Clairo’s feather-light voice sways atop playful manufacturing you would nearly name funky. Even in additional downcast moments—when Clairo sings of mourning a love whereas “on their own upstate,” or describes how she’ll “pull on the string/That binds me to recollections of/The best way I liked you”—the music by no means wallows.
Hardly ever do these songs stray from this subtle palette. It fits her properly, however it marks Attraction as one more profitable however well mannered soft-rock outing, a format with considerably diminishing returns. One music in the direction of the album’s finish breaks away gently from the remainder: “Echo,” a spacey spotlight the place psychedelic synths and Clairo’s droning supply convey it nearer to Broadcast than Carly Simon. It’s an odd tune a couple of love that “goes nowhere,” whose musical gestures improve its lyrical ones. These are the quotidian particulars and the tiny imperfections that make Clairo’s music uniquely alluring. It’s a brand new form of Clairo music, however it has what makes one of the best Clairo songs so unforgettable.
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