Sarah Clanton – Here We Are Sarah Clanton

Sarah Clanton – Here We Are 

URL: https://www.sarahclanton.com/

With a gentle hum and an equally airy drum beat, Sarah Clanton draws us deep within her web of artistry in the song “Come and Find Me,” a stellar track from her upcoming album Here We Are. “I’ll be your shelter when the storm clouds start moving in,” she sings with a heavenly choir of backing vocalists echoing her words in the foreground, each lyric more impactful than the last. Clanton is so masterful at setting a mood just by belting out a string of words against a relatively simple collection of chords, and she shows us precisely why critics around the globe have dubbed her the new queen of indie pop in her latest and most complete album to date.

Sarah Clanton has been building up quite the reputation in the Nashville scene as a songwriter and as a player over the last few years, and while I think that collectively it was known that she had an album like this in her, I don’t know if any of us could have expected her to unleash the juggernaut that is Here We Are so early on in her recording career.Here We Are contains twelve of the most stylishly produced pop songs I’ve ever heard in my life, and unlike her closest contemporaries’ output it contains absolutely zero filler.

The sonic churn of Clanton’s cello can be felt in every song on Here We Are, but “Slow it Down” might be where it grabs our attention the most. This song stuck out to me in particular because of its spacey arrangement, which blends the lingering melancholy of the cello parts with an almost shapeless beat that takes us drifting down a river of colorful texture. It’s been quite some time since I heard a pop song that was as sophisticatedly composed as this one, but my gut tells me that this is on par with what we can expect from Sarah Clanton in all of her future work.

The harmonies that spellbind us in Here We Are come considerably accented with great pain and a sense of yearning that is hard to shake after listening to the record from start to finish without any interruptions. I feel like Clanton is trying to tell us something, trying to communicate from deep within her soul, and her true intentions and desires are revealed to us as the album progresses. Although not a concept piece by design, Here We Are plays with dramatic fluidity and reaches a climax in the track “Hello” that could only be described as cinematic.

There’s no need for any debate; Sarah Clanton is the most exciting artist in all of pop music right now, and Here We Are sees her arriving at the primetime stage ready to lead a new generation of music fans into the future. There’s still room for her to soften a couple of her rougher edges, but overall I couldn’t find anything to complain about with this record. It’s a major turning point for an artist who clearly has a lot to share with us and I would highly recommend it to music lovers everywhere.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1QZMWAucZkTcVTJ3y7FudB?si=DBR2gxHARLmx2isC2-6Ibg

Mindy McCall