Claud - Supermodels

If 2021 debut ‘Super Monster’ found Claud still finding a voice beyond their bedroom pop beginnings, then this, the singer-songwriter’s second, ‘Supermodels’, sees them utilising it in ever more confident ways. It’s obvious from the off why they were picked by label boss Phoebe Bridgers as her first Saddest Factory signee - the sheer specificity of a reference to arguing over Regina Spektor at a bar on ‘Every Fucking Time’ is something the indie-rock behemoth might herself manifest. However, it’s Claud’s willingness to inject humour and playfulness into an ultimately ambitious record that makes ‘Supermodels’ work. Is it coincidence that while ‘Supermodels’ was written on a newly-purchased acoustic guitar, the opening chords of that same song bear uncanny resemblance to ‘Wonderwall’? The album is peppered with killer choruses - on opener ‘Crumbs’ alongside a wholly American 1970s FM radio sound, on ‘Climbing Trees’ emerging almost stealth like. It takes confidence to turn what could become a huge pop moment into something quite so understated in production. There’s epic, too - closer ‘Screwdriver’ channelling the kind of epic melancholy that The National have so popularised. Best of the lot, though, is the ‘90s alt-rock of ‘Glass Wall’, where windy, awkward Weezeresque guitars meet something a little grungier, and another of those huge choruses. Claud has not only found their voice, but knows just how to use it.