Clairo – “Just For Today”
The young bedroom-pop star Clairo released her debut album Immunity in 2019, and she’s found ways to stay artistically busy since then, even during quarantine. She’s done covers: Carole King, the Strokes, Norah Jones. She’s played new songs on livestreams. She’s collaborated with Arlo Parks. She’s started a new band with friends and released a couple of songs. But this is still a messed-up time for everyone, regardless of productivity. And on a new song that she wrote and recorded in the last two nights, Clairo gets extremely personal about what she’s going through.
On Instagram last night, Clairo wrote, “not sure about you, but my mental health has taken a major dip since quarantine started- at times I feel like i’ve never felt worse. new medication, hotlines, and one scheduled appointment with a psychiatrist later and i’m feeling more like myself again.” With that, she shared a new song called “Just For Today,” a lo-fi solo-acoustic track about trying to stay afloat.
Over her own acoustic guitar, Clairo sings softly about her own specific struggles: “I blocked out the month of February for support/ At least I have this year, I won’t be worrying anyone on tour.” Occasionally, her new puppy Joanie interrupts her and sets off giggles, which presumably wasn’t planned but which cuts the mood nicely. Check it out below.
This isn’t the point here, but having animals around during quarantine is really, really nice. I am writing this from a house with two dogs and four cats, and it’s been hard to imagine the past year without all of them.
