LAIRO
From Justin Bieber to Lana Del Rey, YouTube has been making seemingly-overnight stars out of musicians for years now. But when the world universally decides to click ‘like’ on the same video, it still has the power to send the chosen one’s career beaming up to the big time. That’s what happened to then-19-yearold Claire Cotterill, aka Clairo, when she uploaded a super lo-fi bedroom recording of her track ‘Pretty Girl’ to the platform back in 2017; filmed on a webcam, and featuring the Massachusetts singer goofing about with different props, it immediately caught the web’s attention
C
THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
- 19
and has since racked up over 40 million views to date. Yet, rather than a mere one hit wonder, the track kick-started a trajectory that feels like it’s only truly just beginning. This year, Clairo released debut LP ‘Immunity’ - an intimate collection that hinted at a patchwork of influences and a wealth of possibility in front of her. This month, meanwhile, she plays Camp Flog Gnaw at the personal request of Tyler, the Creator, while next month she’ll head to the UK for a full tour. Clairo might already be a viral sensation, but keep your eyes peeled: it won’t be long until she’s just as massive IRL.
D
OUBLE ALBUMS
THE MUSICAL TREND NO ONE KNEW THEY WANTED When The 1975 released ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ at the back end of 2018, after revealing that what they’d previously decided would be one album called ‘Music For Cars’ was instead the first of a two-half ‘era’, little did they know they’d be just one of many acts opting to do pretty much the same. Not unlike the concept record, double albums have, until now, often been the domain of the boorish, a luxury reserved for the self-indulgent artist refusing to ‘edit’ themselves to the standard 45-minute runtime (a length set by the physical limits of a 12” record, fact fans). Yet, in 2019, they’ve become so regular that it’s almost a surprise when an act announces an unembellished 13-track release. As well as Matty and pals, whose ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is set to feature a hefty 22-strong track listing (er, *cough*?), Foals ushered in the stellar ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1’ back in March, with its flip-side having followed last month. Marina (previously of ‘…and the Diamonds’ fame) split her fourth into thematic sides of ‘Love’ and ‘Fear’. Even newbies The Ninth Wave divided up their debut into halves; ‘Infancy Pt I’ was released in May, while its second half comes this month. And as we write, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have just given us a two-part record, ‘Ghosteen’. Brevity, it seems, has not been on 2019’s radar.
E
ILISH FEVER
THE MOMENTOUS RISE OF QUEEN BILLIE When Billie Eilish was booked for Reading & Leeds this summer, she was originally slated for a mid-afternoon BBC Radio 1 Stage spot. Come the August Bank Holiday weekend, she played on the Main Stage to what was easily one of the festival’s biggest ever crowds, circle pits stretching far beyond the back screens, a pop show more punk than most rock acts across the festival’s three days. March’s debut ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’, meanwhile, caught the world’s imagination like no other record this year; full of #relatable lyrics and brother Finneas’ mind-blowing production, it veered from gnarly industrial to a whisper and back again like nothing before. It might’ve taken until August for omnipresent single ‘bad guy’ to oust ‘Old Town Road’ from the US Billboard top spot, but the track had long since climbed to the top of 2019’s pop canon.
43