Label: Orange Hill Records
By Seth White
The elusive Shelly… side project band of eponymous indie pop princess Clairo, and the creators of a hefty four tracks in five years!
Jokes aside, for Clairo and her pals involved in Shelly (Claud, Noa Frances Getzug, and Josh Mehling), this seems to be a passion project more than anything. It was announced short notice on Clairo’s instagram the night before, released the day after and since then not much has been uttered… how mysterious. Anyway, is it any good?
To begin, a certain sect of Clairo fans, myself included, pledge a sort of allegiance to the first two tracks Shelly ever produced. ‘Steeeam‘ and ‘Natural‘ were both extremely successful and both great songs respectively.
But that was five years ago, so I was expecting a switch up. I think the new two-track ‘EP’ of sorts is just as bedroom indie pop jangle delight as ever, and clearly was made to resonate with the die-hard Shelly lovers. It definitely, in my opinion, resonates more with Clairo’s newer, more vintage sound.
‘Cross Your Mind’ and ‘Hartwell‘ both hold hallmarks in the sound of Shelly, but incorporate some new electronic efforts and overall produce a fuller sounding recording, five years in the making I suppose.
Overall, this small but significant release by Shelly panders to the specific sub-sect of Shelly fanatics, reinventing their sound in a refreshing way, while keeping the hardcore listeners satisfied. At the end of the day, it’s marketed as a group of best friends in a band, one of them happening to be mega superstar Clairo, making chill indie pop tunes. Nothing more nothing less!
Listen to ‘Shelly 2’ here: