Taking in Claud’s second album is like watching a musician grow up in real time. Where their 2021 debut ‘Super Monster’ was over-reliant on prescriptive and kitschy bedroom-pop tropes, ‘Supermodels’ brandishes diverse arrangements and ecstatic production.
Lyrically, the Chicagoan matches this broadening of musical horizons by painting vivid scenes of their ongoing coming of age. On the emotive opener, Crumbs, Claud presents the most vulnerable account of themselves yet.
The stylised production creates a disconnect, with Claud’s voice and guitar intimate and immediate while reverb-heavy keys and electronic buzzing create a sense of depth.
This idea of distance is cleverly paralleled by words that relay a story of love and happiness not having been quite as close as they appeared.
Elsewhere, things are more mixed. Every Fucking Time is a powerful piece of writing undone by a fairly straightforward lift of Oasis’s done-to-death Wonderwall guitar part, while Paul Rudd initially appears to fall agonisingly short of pulling off an anthemic hit to match what’s going on elsewhere.
Each movement becomes more emphatic than the last as a simple groove and glittering guitars grow into a chorus that almost gets there, but over time it becomes clear that Claud is working with the sort of genuine feeling that is often best communicated with bare simplicity.
The album is rounded off with Screwdriver, a cut rivalled only by Crumbs for its openness, craft and maturity. Claud sings, “Sometimes I can’t draw the lines so I put vodka in my orange juice and I’m thinking about moving out of New York,” providing both a satisfying final moment and a defiant refusal to give closure.
It’s both curious and brave for a project so steeped in the catharsis of re-engaging with difficult moments from the past to not attempt either a restorative or catastrophic climax, instead choosing one that looks hesitantly towards an unknown horizon.
Claud Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri July 21 2023 - BRISTOL Louisiana
Mon July 24 2023 - BRIGHTON Komedia
Tue July 25 2023 - LONDON Lower Third - Outernet
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