In 2017 when Lorde was preparing to release her sophomore album Melodrama, she reached a new milestone with the release of her second single “Liability.” It was a gut-wrenching look at how loved ones can’t take the wave of another’s fame, creativity, or spunk. It ends with her wrapped in her own arms, a soulmate to herself. Part of the track’s affecting nature was the minimal and delicate production from Jack Antonoff. And now the super producer, who has a forthcoming album of his own, worked the same magic with Clairo’s lead single “Blouse” from her newly-announced sophomore album Sling. It was also revealed that the album, which is coming July 16, was co-produced with Antonoff.
Not only does “Blouse” harness the same urgent closeness as “Liability,” but it also features backing vocals from Lorde herself. Orchestral strings swell around Clairo’s bruised words. “Why do I tell you how I feel / When you’re too busy looking down my blouse,” she sings hushed during the chorus. Towards the track’s end, her vocals get slightly louder as she offers, “If touch could make them hear / Then touch me now.”
In a tweet, Clairo offered some words about the follow-up to 2019’s Immunity: “Joanie, my dog, opened up my world in ways I didn’t think were capable. By caring for her, it forced me to face my own thoughts about parenthood and what it would mean to me. Stories as lessons, regrets as remorse, thinking about something/someone before yourself. It’s a glimpse into a world where I found that domesticity is what I was missing.”
Listen to “Blouse” below and pre-order Sling here.
