The 22-year-old neo-folk singer-songwriter and producer, Chloe Southern, goes beyond making honesty her brand through the motto, “the more alone I feel in an experience, the more I know I need to write about it”.
The Boulder, CO-born, Brooklyn-residing artist is fresh from the release of her debut EP, Last Man on Earth, which contains five singles, all orchestrated to give a confidant to anyone drifting along the same wavelength. One of the standout singles, Oil & Water, is a quiescent aching lullaby. Atop gentle acoustic guitar strings that weave rich Elliott Smith-Esque melodies, Southern finds her resounding voice as she heightens the emotions to the nth degree through the climactically gentle vocal progressions.
All too often, singer-songwriters paint themselves as flawless protagonists in their own stories. Southern switched the narrative by creating a morally grey character of herself in the single that traverses how she stole someone from the arms of another. But she pulls the romanticism back around by alluding to her ability to love him like no other. We’re officially rooting for her in the romantic saga.
Oil & Water is now available to stream on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast