After the back-to-back releases of Blood Bunny and Suckerpunch a few years back, indie-pop songwriter Chloe Moriondo let her fourth album Oyster gestate a little longer than normal before releasing it into the world. Counter to the upbeat, playful energy of those earlier projects, the new record is a thoughtful externalization of the songwriter’s long pent-up feelings attached to infatuation and heartbreak, meditations on vulnerability, envy, and, quite frankly, acting on bad ideas.
From opener “Catch,” Oyster reveals itself as being a far cry from the hyperpop sounds of 2022’s Suckerpunch. Even as the track list gives way to infectious, dancefloor-ready cuts midway through the record, Moriondo bounces through ideas of reckless abandon and the “emotional turbulence” that comes with new potential, with the record’s title deriving from a synth-laden song soundtracking the artist’s realization that the world is, in fact, her oyster.
In celebration of the record’s release today via Public Consumption/Atlantic, Moriondo took the time to walk us through the drama of each of Oyster’s 13 songs. Read her breakdown and stream the record below—you can also purchase the LP here.
1. “Catch”
This song is correct to be the first song on the album because it’s full of both infatuation and self-awareness of false hope/bad habits. I had such a huge crush when I wrote this, the type that lingers while I’m typing this. I knew it wasn’t going to work out, that the last thing I needed was a fling that ends with me feeling stupid, but I just couldn’t help myself.
2. “Raw”
This one is more about the aftermath and vulnerability of being hurt—the rawness of the wound, slick and stinging, combined with the need to give it air and help it heal. It’s about wanting to build up an impenetrable shell post-heartbreak, but accepting that being rough and tough isn’t who you are.
3. “Hate It”
“Hate It” is a tale of murderous envy and lust. I wrote it thinking about gorgeous, rich Instagram models, musicians who look like they could be gorgeous, rich Instagram models, and boys who have to put 2 percent of the effort women put in to look good, yet somehow still end up being adored by hoards and hoards (begrudgingly, unwillingly, me included).
4. “Abyss”
I was so sick of it all when I wrote this one—I wanted to write about reckless abandon: kissing strangers, dancing on tabletops, avoiding feelings, etc. It’s a party song with invisible undertones of exhaustion/depression, and in my mind it’s my Dua Lipa moment.
5. “Oyster”
I wrote the title track before I wrote anything else! I knew I wanted it to be called “Oyster” from the moment the idea bloomed. This song represents the duality of newfound confidence/potential and emotional turbulence. My world is an oyster!
6. “Shoreline”
“Shoreline” is about the special type of isolation you feel after your first major heartbreak. I felt so pathetic for writing this song considering the circumstances—everyone knew about this relationship, and we were so intertwined in ways. I had to learn a lot by myself for the first time, which was scary but important.
7. “Parasite”
I wrote “parasite” the day after the ex of a boy I was talking to spammed my phone with texts full of insane degradation and honestly incredibly creative insults. I don’t think I’ve ever been called names like this girl called me—it was crazy to me, considering how little I truly knew the guy/originally cared to be involved enough with him to be berated by an ex. I still liked him, though, which was an embarrassing, guilty, and parasitic feeling.
8. “7seas”
Oh, “7seas”—my sweet, vulnerable, stupid little angel. This song is about finally feeling fine with being single, finally being ready to start your solo healing journey, and then tumbling head over heels for someone in a way so sudden and deep that it feels like you’ve been searching for them forever. Poor thing is blind to what’s coming.
9. “Weak”
In sentiment, “Weak” is “7seas”’s more knowing yet similarly hopeless sister. It’s a rumination on having a crush you know isn’t healthy for you, one you know isn’t going to end well, but you can’t help but soften for them regardless. Sometimes it’s a rush of feelings so big you can’t help but giggle louder and weirder than normal, and sometimes it’s anxiety and butterflies that make you freeze up around them.
10. “Use”
“Use” is a delightful and cathartic concoction of bad habits. I wanted to reflect on mistakes, vices, and the ways I often get myself into the bad situations I end up writing about. Sometimes I feel like I’m dangling a worm in front of my own face, and the worm is laced with arsenic, cyanide, and everything else that will kill me, but it looks so good that I swallow it whole every time.
11. “Sinking”
I made “Sinking” with tomcbumpz in his studio! I was feeling slightly sentimental, optimistic, and mildly melancholic this day, and it turned out he kinda was too. I put down this verse about how I was feeling that we really liked, and he had a chorus that he wanted to try (I don’t normally just let someone else write my entire chorus!)—I loved it. It’s about the feelings coming from an emotional phantom limb.
12. “Pond”
This is probably one of my saddest songs. Writing this, I pictured a mournful little ballerina ice skating endless, slow figure-eights alone on a frozen lake in the glowing night. The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory. I think she would’ve liked the vocoder on the chorus. Maybe. Maybe not.
13. “Siren Calling”
This song lays the album down to rest by recounting the first relationship I got into after the major heartbreak I often write about in this album. It’s an honest retelling of how I knew I was too quickly getting into something that wasn’t going to be right for me and would only hurt me again, but I ignored those logical feelings anyway like almost always. It ends in the realization that I don’t know much about how to be alone or what I want outside of someone to love. I think I'm slowly getting a pretty good hang of it since finishing the creation of Oyster.
