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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →On Charm, Clairo’s hushed, close-miked voice meets a warm, full-band sound shaped with co-producer Leon Michels. The result is a gently buoyant album about attraction, uncertainty and the effort to stay open to other people without losing sight of yourself. “Liberation” is a useful critical reading of its freer, more collaborative sound—not a claim Clairo made as the album’s defining message.
What is Charm?
Charm is Clairo’s third album, released on July 12, 2024. Apple Music lists 11 songs and a 38-minute runtime. It follows Immunity (2019) and Sling (2021), and was self-released, according to The Guardian. The sequence begins with “Nomad” and ends with “Pier 4,” moving from open-air wandering toward a quieter, unresolved reflection on closeness.
Genre labels are best treated as signposts here. Apple Music describes a path from bedroom pop through indie rock and folk toward the baroque, Seventies soul-inflected chamber pop of Charm. The album also draws on pop, R&B and soft rock without settling into any one category. Apple Music’s album listing provides the track list and release details.
How does Charm sound?
The album’s defining contrast is between Clairo’s intimate vocal presence and arrangements that feel more spacious and tactile. Reviews call attention to Wurlitzer, mellotron, organ and piano, alongside brass and woodwinds. The Guardian reports that the record was made to tape; that detail belongs to the album’s production history, but it does not by itself explain or prove a particular sound.
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Leon Michels co-produced the album. A member and leader of El Michels Affair, he is also associated with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Rather than building the arrangements around a one-to-one process, Clairo told The Guardian that this record involved a group of musicians contributing their own parts. Among Michels’s longtime collaborators on the sessions were Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, Marco Benevento and Dave Guy. The New Yorker describes sessions at Electric Lady in Manhattan and Allaire Studio near Woodstock.
That ensemble approach gives the songs warmth and small, human-feeling details while leaving Clairo’s voice at the emotional center. Michels told The New Yorker that he and Clairo were willing to keep imperfections, saying of such choices, “Those are my favorite production choices.” The point is not that looseness automatically makes a recording better; it is that Charm allows a little irregularity to live inside polished, carefully arranged songs.
Rank #2
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What is the album about?
Clairo described the title as the ambiguous, exciting period when two people are charming one another before they know each other well. That uncertainty gives the songs room to imagine what might happen next. Across the album, romance is less a settled destination than a shifting mix of desire, dating, distance and self-discovery.
In an interview with The Guardian, Clairo connected that openness to a period of extended solitude. Speaking about what she wanted afterward, she said, “what I desperately wanted was friends, and flings, and to understand myself.” She also described learning to accept fluidity in her identity and interests, and framed a crush as a possible source of connection—not proof that a person must first repair themselves to deserve love. As she put it, “You don’t need to shut off connection, or fix yourself in order to be loved.” These are her reflections, not universal rules about relationships.
Rank #3
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That perspective helps explain why the record can sound light without making its feelings simple. Its musical ease sits alongside uncertainty: wanting to be desired does not guarantee confidence, and longing for intimacy does not erase distance. The album lets those states coexist rather than forcing a tidy resolution.
How do the songs trace that mood?
- “Nomad” opens the album with a wandering, pastoral feel. Rolling Stone hears pedal steel and spacious psych-folk colors in its sound.
- “Sexy to Someone” turns the wish to be wanted into a light, flirtatious song, colored by flute and Mellotron. Clairo told The Guardian that after a long stretch alone she wanted friendships, flings and a better understanding of herself.
- “Second Nature” pairs a buoyant, nervous pulse with the charged uncertainty of new attraction.
- “Juna” is a warm, R&B-leaning centerpiece. Its confidence and desire do not amount to uncomplicated certainty.
- “Slow Dance” uses piano and woodwinds to create a hesitant, intimate mood; Pitchfork notes flute and clarinet near its close.
- “Terrapin” has a lounge-like, piano-led character, while keeping some prickly rhythmic details in view.
- “Echo” is a darker, more spacey turn from the prevailing warmth. Pitchfork and Apple Music both compare its atmosphere to Broadcast.
- “Pier 4” closes the record with a quieter meditation on intimacy, public identity and the distance that can remain even when someone wants closeness.
Is Charm different from Sling?
Charm extends some of the intimacy and restraint associated with Sling, but shifts toward a fuller ensemble sound and more overt Seventies soul and pop colors. Where Sling is commonly characterized as folk-leaning, Charm makes more room for rhythmic lift, keys, horns and woodwinds. The change is not a rejection of quiet songwriting: Clairo’s soft vocal delivery remains central, now surrounded by a more varied group performance.
Rank #4
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The album’s coherence is also a matter of taste. Rolling Stone hears Clairo playfully blurring pop, R&B, soul and folk through Seventies melodies. Pitchfork praises the arrangement’s lushness and vivid details, but finds the sustained soft-rock palette overly polite and subject to diminishing returns. One listener may hear warmth and a carefully held atmosphere; another may want sharper shifts in sound. Both responses address the same deliberate consistency.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How was Charm received?
The Guardian’s Katie Hawthorne praised the album’s freedom, warmth and emotional balance. The publication later placed it at No. 4 on its 2024 best-albums list. That is an editorial ranking by The Guardian, not a sales result or industry chart position. Pitchfork’s more qualified response likewise recognized the richness of the production while questioning whether the album’s consistent palette stays too restrained.
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Together, those critical views clarify the album’s central trade-off: Charm favors intimacy, texture and a sustained mood over dramatic reinvention from track to track. Its liberation is audible less as a break from Clairo’s quiet style than as a widening of the space around it.
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