Immunity

by 
AlbumAug 02 / 201911 songs, 40m 40s
Bedroom Pop
Popular

With the DIY video for her 2017 track “Pretty Girl,” Clairo became the premier case study for how the internet can instantly blow up homespun artists. But with her full-length debut album, the Massachusetts indie-pop phenom betrays a bold artistic vision that can no longer be contained by her bedroom walls. Co-produced by the artist with ex-Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij, *Immunity* achieves just the right balance of focus and fuzz, expanding Clairo’s sonic vocabulary with neo-soul vibes, jazzy piano lines, and boom-bapped drum breaks while framing her most brutally honest tracks—like the breakup lament “Bags” and same-sex-love anthem “Sofia”—with gritty intensity and blown-out distortion. Throughout the album, Clairo tries to reconcile her desire for independence with her need for intimacy, an emotional tug-of-war that reaches its zenith on the momentous closer “I Wouldn’t Ask You,” a stark, defiant piano ballad that cedes to the warm embrace of its ecstatic chillwave outro.

8.0 / 10

On her debut album, the young viral star moves beyond the lo-fi bedroom-pop of her early recordings and into a restrained, detailed style of songwriting all her own.

5 / 10

Two years ago, Pretty Girl appeared on YouTube. The song, fiendishly catchy with basic production and a webcam video, went viral — 36 million views and counting.

7.3 / 10

The Massachusetts indie-pop singer-songwriter and internet-breaker makes an impressive LP debut, with help from Rostam Batmanglij.

Clairo's five or so years as a rising, teenaged Bandcamp self-releaser turned social media star included viral songs such as "Pretty Girl" and "Flaming Hot Cheetos" as well as collaborations with fellow bedroom pop phenoms Cuco and Jakob Ogawa.

7 / 10

Claire Cottrill (known professionally as Clairo) rose swiftly in 2017 on the strength of her disarmingly simple "Pretty Girl," which gained...

6.5 / 10

In barely two years, Internet ingénue Claire Cottrill (aka Clairo) has graduated from the homemade and adorable "Pretty Girl" video that went viral, plus "Flaming Hot Cheetos"—a song that compares the confusion of a schoolgirl crush to the guilty pleas

8 / 10

Back in 2017, Claire Cottrill was just another university student with lofty ambitions of making a career out of music. Her breakout single, ‘Pretty

(Fader)

The album is steeped in warm acoustics juxtaposed by austere observations about life and love.

8 / 10

In your life, you act as the protagonist, a role assigned at random that one never auditions nor prepares for.

6.0 / 10

IMMUNITY by Clairo album Review by Adam Fink. The singer/songwriter's debut full-length comes out on August 2nd, via The Fader

The Pretty Girl singer’s debut album broadens her range beyond its lo-fi origins in an impressive take on emotion

75 %

4.1 / 5

clairo - Immunity review: a taut rope

4 / 10