It was the first half of 2019 when I first heard of the genre “bedroom pop”. It was connected to a track review for the single release track “Bags” in the lead-up to Clairo’s debut album, Immunity, which would appear later the same year. While the term mainly refers to young artists using the tools (i.e. computers) they have in their bedrooms to create their music, in combination with Clairo’s sound I was thrown back to my teenage years, laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to music. Or on the floor, or wherever teenagers find a place to lie around.
The song, and the entire album, wonderfully captures a sort of lo-fi melancholia while still having upbeat pop-y energy.
When August came around and the album was released, I was properly hooked for a good amount of time. Listen after listen, I would shift from one favorite song to another. It’s an album that really lends itself nicely to long strolls around town or just for lounging at home. …just a few months later, something that would come in handy quite a lot.
Just about two weeks before ominous news of a viral outbreak in Wuhan, China started making the rounds, I, alone, headed for the North of Amsterdam to see Clairo perform on the supporting tour for the album.
Now, what I had not considered in my enjoyment of the music and excitement for the artist, was that this relation of music to teen memories did not happen in a vacuum. And so I found myself in a small concert venue that was filled to the brim with screaming 16-year-old girls – and about five or six fathers that seemed to have come along to make sure all was well.
Neither before nor after have I ever felt so uncomfortably watched as then, by those dads. It’s something I am sure to not forget anytime soon.
Regardless, the concert was great – and she would go on to properly blow up right after.
Have a listen. Maybe it also catapults you down memory lane.
Happy weekend, folks 🙂
Coryphe 