"if you were to trim down there, I’d love you."
Words, they can hurt more than a slap in the face. They can also reveal your true self. They slip out of our mouths so easily sometimes as weapons of personal destruction when we aren't being out better selves. The few really smart folks I have met know that being quiet over being verbose is the characteristic of the caring and the wise. The good thing is that people's words do really reveal who that person is... that bitter truth is something I try to pass on to my children because there are so many selfish people in this big world.
The words on Trim by the Swedish singer songwriter de clair. reveal so much truth, laced with pain (and hard lessons learned) that they feel like a splash of ice cold water in your face. Those words ride on a simple but effective machine drum beat, quietly swelling synths but mostly on de clair.'s pristine emotionally heavy vocals that croon, softly wail and look inward. As she sings about the kinds of requests born out of love that is narcissistic in nature and thus one sided it likely will punch you in the stomach. We have all known or been someone like this. The very last barbed words are the most telling and even made me laugh, a nervous laugh because it is so audacious but so cemented in the truthfulness of horrible people:
"but if I don't start loving you before June 24th, I will find another one better than you"
OUCH.
In the end, de cliar.'s Trim is a pure original, darkly poetic and that rare song that is also a lesson for life. A required listen that should be mandatory for every young person in middle school (I think).
-Robb Donker Curtius
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as de clair constructs subtle, minimalistic soundscapes - her words and voice get to be in the spotlight. the ever so honest, cutting lyrics are often sung with such nerve, that it’s hard not to shiver. she both sings with such carefulness, as if she were to whisper in your ear - or lets her voice grow to its fullest potential and become as powerful as an explosive arrow. writing about injustice, silent sadness and reflections on today’s society - de clair takes on subjects that not many dare to talk about. look no further than the song ‘trim’, her first release of 2020. the stripped down, drum machine driven song, talks about the moment when someone tells you something that hurts acutely, even though you know it's dull lunacy. ‘if you were to trim down there, I’d love you.’ a sharp reminder of the vulnerability that lies in being a young body in today’s peculiar society. with ‘trim’, de clair - aka swedish-born clara - 22, explores the idea of the most intimate form of injustice. writing, producing and mixing all songs by herself, the sound is wholeheartedly her own. it’s hopeful anthems for frondeurs, soundtracks for the present as well as injections of empowerment for whoever might need it.
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