Cover for diary 001
With her European tour well underway, I feel like it is a good time to put the spotlight on the magnificent singer/songwriter Clario. While we haven’t heard any new music from the artist in 2022, there is still plenty to talk about, especially after the release of her 2021 sophomore album “Sling“. After making waves in early 2017 with her hit single “Pretty Girl“, Clario hasn’t stopped blowing audiences away with her amazing voice and impeccable songwriting.
Claire Elizabeth Cottrill, better known as Clario, began her music career at the age of 13 when she began recording covers and performing them for local businesses. Even at this time she was on music execs’ radars; being asked to record a song for the background of one of MTV’s shows. She continued to post music on SoundCloud and YouTube under the names DJ Baby Benz and Clario until 2017 when the video for her single “Pretty Girl” went viral on YouTube. She said
Image taken from viral music video for Pretty Girl
that she was inspired by 80’s pop and used what little equipment she had at the time to create the track. During this time she also released a few other singles including “Flaming Hot Cheetos” and “4EVER“. The following year these singles, accompanied by a few others, were formed into a 6 song EP titled “diary 001“. Unfortunately, none of these songs received nearly the same amount of attention as “Pretty Girl”. Clario was receiving a lot of flack at this time, being called a one hit wonder and an industry plant.
After the release of “diary 001”, Clario headlined a North American tour, selling out shows, all while proving that the hype was deserved. After the tour concluded, she opened for Dua Lipa, performed at Lollapalooza in 2018, and then Coachella in 2019. Later in 2019 she released the single “Bags” along with an announcement for her first studio album “Immunity“. The release of this
Cover for Immunity
record showed the world that Clario was here to stay, winning the artist Pop Artist of the Year (for the second consecutive year might I add) along with Album of the Year at the 2019 Boston Music Awards. The single “Bags” was included on 15 lists for top songs of the year as well as two lists for top songs of the decade, and the album itself was included in over 10 critics’ end of the year list. It’s safe to say that Clario was far from the one hit wonder people claimed she was two years prior.
In April of 2020, Clario revealed that she has begun working on her Sophomore album via a tweet containing screenshots of a playlist titled “Album 2”. The public was given very little information about the album until June 11, 2021, on which she released the single “Blouse” along with an official announcement for her second album titled “Sling“. During the time between April of 2020 and the release of “Blouse” Clario formed a band named Shelly with indie-pop artist Claud and their two friends from college. The band released two singles on October 30, 2020. On July 16, 2021, Clario blessed the ears of the public with the release of “Sling”. It was easy to see that the artist had made a huge progression from her first album to her second. In an interview with Apple Music, she revealed that she had recorded over 200 songs for the album. When the interviewer asked what she will do with the other 188 songs that didn’t make the cut, she stated that, “about five or six are going to my other band, Shelly, and the rest are going in the trash.” It is very apparent that she is a perfectionist, releasing only the best of what she has to offer.
Cover for Sling
This album is a huge step in the right direction for the artist, moving away from surface level songs and moving towards songs that handle deeper, more intense subjects. I personally love when artists take this approach because it allows you to really feel the emotions the artist is feeling. Songs like “Bambi” and “Blouse” reflect her dark mental state after the release of her first album; being thrown into the music industry at the age of 18, while songs like “Reaper” explore a side of motherhood that Clario had never considered before speaking to her mother about the topic during the pandemic. I think this is an album and artist that everyone needs to listen to, and a good starting point (and my personal favorite from the artist) is “Amoeba“. I will be looking forward to what the artist has to offer in the future.
I am so glad you focused on Clairo – such a truly iconic artist of our generation. I do feel you were slightly more concise in your writing and sentence length, but I think you could go even further in future blog posts. There wasn’t much varying in sentence structure or length – a lot of sentences were long. I am guilty of the same thing on my blog too, lol.
Clario has become such an indie icon for this generation! I remember when Pretty Girl came out and thinking the same thing- that it would be the only good song she produced, but I was so wrong! I love the album Bags and some of my favorite songs (Amoeba as well) come from Sling. I never knew that Clario was apart of Shelly which makes so much more sense now!
I really like Clairo’s music so reading this post was very interesting! I had no idea she started writing music so young but it’s really amazing how far she has come in her career. I like how you went a little in-depth about the song in the albums and their themes.