Clairo: The plight of a teenager
By nature of her writing style and the themes explored through her music, Clairo has always worn her heart on her sleeve and remained expressive about the plight of coming into one’s age.
Her music is deeply emotive and reflective and throughout her career has been erected by the feminine, ethereal tone of her songs, a staple of her career that separates her from other artists, writes Music News Blitz’s Isaac James.
This fragility that accompanies her music invites thought from the listeners, the harmonic instrumentation in songs like “Heaven” and “Juna” enable storytelling on a greater level than most artists, gentle melodies that are guided by Clairo’s voice.
Rising popularity
Immunity was Clairo’s first studio-produced album released in 2019 following acclaim and success on her 2018 EP Diary 001 and various bedroom-pop singles.
The album is very firm in its reiteration of themes such as independence and self-reliance, traits that Clairo almost frames as faults, before juxtaposing this with a sense of yearning for love.
The album is deeply complex and a testament to the difficulties in navigating love, rejection and the loneliness of being a teenager.
Rekindling dying flames
In “Impossible” Clairo narrates as though she is calling a distant friend, asking “When was the last time that I saw your face?”
It’s meant to be awkward, like a needy puppy asking for attention, Clairo calls someone who is clearly comfortable being distant.
This idea is reinforced as she embodies a sense of sentimentality, noting how “All [her] old feelings” are coming back to her.
It’s a final attempt to reconnect, frantically trying to pull back a connection that is slipping away.
The tone is almost desperate, with the other person implied to be emotionally unavailable or out of reach.
The lines “it's so confusing” emphasise the difficulty Clairo is having connecting to them, as well as “I know we’re not the same as we were, used to be falling hard, now it just hurts”.
The song deals with the pain and, more than anything, the perplexing nature of trying to communicate with somebody who is comfortable with being closed off.
The ‘scene’ is almost painful to watch, but Immunity encourages and normalises the discomfort that is inherent to adolescence.
Clairo positions herself as inferior to the one she sings about as she “picked up the books you threw on the floor”, a silent display of almost obedience as she attempts to offer acts of service.
But again, the hostility of the latter action indicates a clear disconnect between the two.
The song’s instrumentation is noticeably more upbeat than most of Clairo’s prior songs.
Whilst songs like “Bags” and “North” follow this pattern of being driven by a strong beat and tempo, all three are odes to the complexities of love.
Although none are quite as steadfast in their depiction of romance as the album’s 7th track: “Sofia.”
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Love in spite of barriers
“Sofia” is one of Clairo’s most popular and well-known songs, gaining traction as a queer anthem.
Clairo used the song as a way to solidify her sexuality in the public eye as a bisexual woman and would continuously refer to love interests in songs with gender-neutral pronouns, or, as in this case, feminine ones.
The core theme of the song is trying to overcome social hurdles.
Clairo embodies a reassuring voice, constantly telling “Sofia” that their love “shouldn’t feel like a crime.”
As much as the song positions Clairo as the one who doesn't need reassurance, she has opened up about insecurities in her sexuality and the angst that came with it, remembering how she would take ‘Am I Gay?’ tests in her youth.
The song can easily perceived as a mantra for self-acceptance, a love letter to Clairo’s younger self.
Like in “Impossible,” there is a clear level of yearning for connection that bridges both songs; whereas the barrier in the former is distance, Sofia probes the hurdles presented by social standards, calling them “things that could get in the way”.
The core messaging behind the song is overcoming these, that an undying love can and will remedy any outside hostilities, the chorus echoing “I think we could do it if we tried” as Clairo reaffirms that Sofia is the priority to her, not the outside influences keeping them apart.
Intimacy and a lack thereof
Whilst the two previous songs revolve around love and longing for someone, “I Wouldn't Ask You” is an outlet for Clairo to discuss her struggles with intimacy and vulnerability.
It is a very beautiful song and one that is neatly and thoughtfully put together and really unpacks just how frightening it can be to put one’s heart on the line.
Throughout the track, Clairo compares longing and affection to a “lock hangin’ round [her] neck,” telling the listener that they “don’t get a key.”
This connotes a level of entrapment from both loneliness, as well as partnership, a taste of the dual nature of romance that the song ponders.
Her affections remain locked away and her fear of vulnerability leads her to be perceived as “ice cold,” steadfast in her pursuit of remaining at a distance as the chorus would later chime, “I wouldn't ask you to take care of me”.
Clairo has opened up about fear of dependency on loved ones, with other songs like “Alewife” reiterating such ideas in regard to her physical disability.
I suppose that this song allows for a greater and more thoughtful discussion about perception and how alienating love can be sometimes, much like the alienation her arthritis has caused her.
“I Wouldn't Ask You”, more than anything, enables Clairo to acknowledge how nuanced her own relationship with love is and that it isn't as simple as hopelessly yearning for someone.
She enjoys her independence and is able to appreciate the qualities of both romance and being on her lonesome.
With a world that is hyper-fixated on romance, I think that having such ideas normalised and discussed is important and highlights the depth of consideration that goes into Clairo’s work.
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Retrospective
Immunity has a very distinct balance between deep reflection on both internal and external sources of conflict within life, especially for that of a teenage girl.
Of course, the album is versatile and complex enough in its themes that empathising is easy for most people with such ideas.
But I think that at the album’s core is a notion that adolescence is not an easy stage in life to navigate.
In further albums, Clairo would go on to discuss more mature themes like vanity, objectification and motherhood, but Immunity, whilst still written from her experience, is honestly an album made for the teenage self.
It is raw, it is honest and it is beautifully and unapologetically human.
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