Chloe Moriondo - Oyster
My world is an oyster, and my heart is a pearl.
The final Friday of an extremely eventful month for music delivers the fourth studio album by Detroit-born indie artist Chloe Moriondo. Coming two and a half years after her third record, SUCKERPUNCH, oyster makes quite a significant sonic change from that project, setting aside its hip-hop-infused hyperpop in favor of a much more subtly synthy soundscape. The changes absolutely work in the new album’s favor.
The aquatic aesthetic of the album, present in both the cover and title, is a recurring theme throughout the tracklist, with plenty of references to ocean-related things in the lyrics, and something of an underwater fantasy feel to the music as well. I think it’s a great benefit to an album where it can capture a certain feeling, and keep you immersed within it, even as it varies in mood - and oyster does that very well. The listener remains drawn into the album’s universe, even in contrasts between more upbeat and more melancholic tracks.
Moriondo’s vocals throughout the album are quite versatile, mostly soft and subtle but, like the instrumentals, also having their more energetic moments. The processing on them gives them a quite otherworldly feel, with a touch of something slightly haunting and a little unsettling, but in an extremely compelling way. Her writing is fairly simple in some places, but to-the-point and very easy to feel compassion towards. Generally, Chloe Moriondo is very much in her element in the more upbeat tracks, but at her best when she allows herself to be softer and more vulnerable - something she does on numerous occasions on this album. The lead single, “shoreline”, and the penultimate track, “pond”, stand out in particular from that point of view.
The strongest element as a whole of oyster, though, is definitely the production. It plays a massive part in crafting the intricate world of the album. It feels as though every note, every synth line, every drum and every bass part was crafted with the utmost love and care, fitting together into a soundscape that is impossible to not be captivated by; the mixes are sleek and pleasant, and the vocals are, at most, placed just high enough to be the definite central focus without being too in-your-face; sometimes, they outright bleed together with the music, almost becoming an instrument in themselves, like in the matching melodies on the chorus of the title track.
Overall, oyster is an engaging new stage in the evolution of one of the most intriguing pop artists of the new generation - someone who isn’t afraid to try new things and experiment with her sound, but never loses the copious amounts of unique personality in her music. At just 22, Chloe Moriondo has a colossal amount of potential in the music world; and this record is a definite step in the right direction.
8.5/10
