Clearbody – Cordelia | Single Review
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Self-released
I don’t know about you guys, but I always have to find ways to get through the winter. The beginning of the season is okay because it’s padded with holidays, vacations, and traditions that give you nice little milestones to celebrate as the days get shorter and the temperature gets colder. Then the new year rolls around, the weather stays shitty, and you realize you’re in for at least another two to three months of this. Especially where I grew up in Portland, Oregon, the dreary weather can stretch into April or May, making for months straight of grey, cloudy, sunless days.
This past winter, I found myself going on autopilot when the days got hard or tiring or long. Some days felt like they passed by at warp speed, other times, they drug on in the most spectacularly agonizing ways. I had a few things giving me hope as I weathered the long, thin, occasionally snowy Denver winter. One was my relationship, which has been a bright spot in my life for the past year and a half, warming me up and invigorating me whenever I need it most. Another thing keeping me going was the knowledge that all of this will end and that the frigid Denver winter would eventually give way to spring. The last thing helping me push through was “Cordelia” by Clearbody.
The latest single from the Charlotte shoegazers comes hot on the heels of “New Essence,” which they dropped early in May. While “New Essence” was a boppy mid-tempo rocker that extends nicely off 2020’s One More Day, “Cordelia” kicks things into high gear for what is easily the most upbeat (and borderline-pop-punk) song in the band’s portfolio.
“Cordelia” starts with a far-off reverb-y jangle and several carefully-placed cymbal taps. Not too far off from anything you’d expect in this genre. About 30 seconds in, everything snaps into place as the band launches off into a propulsive, uplifting trot. All at once, the song goes from a dreamy, languid shoegaze haze to a sunset drive down the coast. To feel this warmth back in January felt like getting a glimpse of the sun on that first true day of spring weather.
I don’t usually talk about receiving music early because 1) it’s corny and can feel like bragging, and 2) whenever I get music early from an artist I like, a part of me feels obligated to write about it. This has been a dynamic I’ve struggled with ever since the early days of this blog and is only relevant here because when Eric Smeal, the guitarist and lead singer for Clearbody, sent me an unmixed version of Bend Into The Blur, it was arriving in my life at the exact right time.
Only a couple of weeks into the new year, I followed the Soundcloud link without hesitation, eager to hear what the band had been concocting since their 2020 debut. A classic case of an excellent December release that flew under the radar, it wasn’t until Swim Into The Sound’s own Connor Fitzpatrick interviewed the band that I decided to revisit the LP. By the time winter 2021 had rolled around, I was in the middle of a personal shoegaze renaissance, and the eight songs on One More Day made for a quick punch of shoegaze riffs that I could quickly down in 25 minutes.
By January of 2023, I was hungry for anything new from the band, and Bend Into A Blur is the exact kind of mid-point update I needed from this group. Five songs that each explore a different avenue of the shoegaze heavy grunge sound. Throughout the release, you can hear inspiration from contemporary bands like Cloakroom, Superheaven, and Narrow Head alongside a clear reverence for classic genre staples like Hum, Nothing, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Clearbody’s new EP was also recorded by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Koyo, One Step Closer) and mastered by Will Yip, making it evident that they were going for a slightly tougher, more hardcore sound than their previous efforts. Despite the cuffed pants tough guy cred and thicker skin, the choice to end the release on a four-and-a-half minute pop rock track with a chorus like an Oasis song is inspired. I’ll say this as plainly as possible: “Cordelia” is one of my favorite songs of the year. It earned that title easily back in January, mainly because there wasn’t much competition, but the song has held firm for six months now, and I don’t see much eclipsing it in the back half of the year.
At the same time in early 2023, I was listening to (and loving) the self-titled album from Stress Fractures, an emo punk band from South Carolina helmed by Martin Hacker-Mullen, who also happens to play bass for Clearbody. Hearing new music from both projects in such close succession unlocked something in my brain. It felt like I could hear the two artists building off of one another in real time, inspiring and pushing each other to reach further. There’s a well of shared influence and mutual admiration, but they’re also each carving out their own specific lane. As a former Jail Socks freak, one of the biggest things for me was hearing some remnant of that bouncy Carolina emo style drip through. A song like “Cordelia” harnesses that energy and then cranks the reverb and distortion to blistering levels, which I’m all about.
Throughout the first six months of the year, I’d throw on Bend Into A Blur and sometimes even just “Cordelia” on its own, because the song is just that good. The EP has motivated me through frosty walks and frigid grocery store trips; all the while, I daydreamed how wonderful these songs would sound once summer finally rolled around. Part of me found it hard to bite my tongue about “Cordelia” before the release was announced. I didn’t want to be the one to let the cat out of the bag that Clearbody was back, but I wanted to shout this song from the rooftops and sing along with my windows down. Instead, I listened in isolation, silently mouthing along the words as I waited for brighter days and warmer weather. Now those brighter days are here, and so is “Cordelia.”
Bend Into A Blur releases later this week on 6/16. I’m excited for the world to have these songs, but most of all, I’m excited for them to finally soundtrack summer adventures that aren’t just in my head.
