chloe moriondo teaches us how to stay afloat in new album, 'oyster'
- blondevibrations
- May 12
- 7 min read
chloe moriondo's latest album, 'oyster', is a fluid and painfully accurate representation of the emotional shipwreck that is youthful existence. Drenched with ocean puns, this album is a perfect example of how to engage with both a creatively conceptual idea with real life experiences and confessional lyricism. moriondo manages to stay soft and self-aware in their songwriting, even as they are sinking in heartbreak, and we are all invited to float with them.
The first track on this album is 'catch', opening with a distant-sounding voice note and a slowly increasing electronic melody. In this moment, it truly feels like you're diving into moriondo's new world that they have created in this album. The switch from an understated, electronic and echoey pre-chorus into the catchy chorus begins to introduce you to the disorientating landscape that we are taken across in this project, with moments of clarity and moments of confusion. Lines like ''cause you're an idea, I don't need you / but I want you so bad' provides us with the initial initiation of this internal conflict that is heavily explored in the album. Notably, this is continued into the following track, 'raw', which has a pinkpantheress level of infectiousness that makes you want to transport into warmer weather. The repetition of 'raw' in the chorus feels like bubbles arising underwater, suggesting moments of honesty uncontrollably revealing themselves. Much like 'catch', 'raw' sets a confessional and vulnerable standard as moriondo grapples with the wanting to be strong, but naturally being a soft person.
'hate it' is, once again, a candid exploration of natural human emotions that we are often taught to fear or hide. This song explores jealousy, hatred, and obsession and the extremity of these emotions when you're still in the moment, as shown with lines like 'Wanna wear your body and trade places / Everybody loves you, and I hate it'. 'hate it' notes the curiosity of the online world with the first verse singing 'Looking at you through a screen / I don't know what I mean when I say / That I want your face', though you can't help but continue moriondo's oceanic metaphor in thinking about this screen being a aquarium window. It's clear that when making this project, moriondo wanted to lean into complicated emotions and situations, and lay them out for all to see and consider; 'hate it' is a pure example of this.
After these initial tracks exploring these intense emotions, 'abyss' transports us to a party under the sea. This song encapsulates being young, having fun, and trying to exist without constantly being aware of what's happening outside of that moment. 'abyss' feels reminiscent of so many great alt-pop musicians on the scene right now, think BENEE and Remi Wolf, but also like it could be extracted from the 'Barbie' movie -- in fact, in an interview with FLOOD, moriondo shares that 'in my mind it's my Dua Lipa moment', and we are absolutely picking up what she's putting down. Continuing with this high energy moment is the album's namesake track, 'oyster'. While returning to the project's wider subject matter and introspection, moriondo maintains the excitable flair of 'abyss'. The chorus of 'It gets so hard to keep up with all the broken parts I leave them / Leave 'em laying down in the dark', paired with its electronic soundscape feels like a very 'brat' exploration of messiness and the reality of being young and live fluctuating between having fun and falling apart. So when 'oyster' is paired with 'abyss', listeners can really feel immersed in this realistic juxtaposition.
A track that forces you to stop and sit with your emotions, feeling them to their full extent is 'shoreline'. With lyrics like 'You can say that you're always there / But I can't find you anywhere / You're still so mean and sweet at the same' shows how this gut-wrenching, stripped back song is a realistic presentation of grieving the presence of a person after a breakup. moriondo's minimal vocals paired with a humming beat and additional sound effects and voice effects slowly increase to a subtle climax towards the end of the track really illuminates this experience of isolation post-breakup and the non-linear stages of getting over this. In this song, we are recentered with the extended marine metaphor with its bridge noting 'I'm still at the shipwreck and you're not here yet', as we progress through this album, we are in awe at moriondo's ability to seamlessly engage with strong metaphorical imagery yet maintaining her finger on the pulse of human emotions. We can still see this in 'parasite', as she writes 'You feel like a parasite eating up my mind / Ruining my appetite and I just can't find / A way to detach from you'. With an incredible discography behind her, we were no strangers to moriondo's creative storytelling, but it's clear that in this project she truly lets loose and dives head first into their creative vision.
'7seas' is an absolutely irresistibly bouncy standout, that had both of us nodding our heads to the beat. The infectious chorus of 'What did you do to me? / I thought that I was free / You brought me to my knees / I've sailed the seven seas to find someone like you' with its descending notes at this point of the album feels like moriondo is trying to swim, but keeps getting swept away by the current. This track is such a fun way to show the experience of falling uncontrollably for a person, in the wake of heartbreak and swearing you would never feel that way again. 'weak' feels like the sibling track of '7seas', with a sample from 'How Do You Know It's Love?' ringing out at the end of the track: 'I was just thinking that they might help you to understand / How your capacity for love grows and develops / Just as you'll grow and develop'. In the second half of the album, we begin to think about growth and progression, while progressing with moriondo's analysis of feelings and their entanglement with relationships, as the track explores the grey areas of love and hate, pain and joy ('It's cold in a way, but I kinda like the pain'). In this expansive exploration of ambiguity, we are introduced to another way this oceanic metaphor works; thinking about the fluidity of water, but also human emotions and relationships.
Complicated relationships and the give-and-take of dynamics is explored in 'use', with its repetitive chorus consisting of 'I use and let use / I do, I do, I do, I do,' almost spins the listener around, making them dizzy and disorientated. This blended image of who is who in the relationship is then magnified by lines like 'Caught you by the tail, but you bit right back' and 'I can't tell whose blood is in the water / 'Cause we do it to each other'. moriondo continues to reverse-anthropomorphise herself in this track, almost making herself seem like a frog: 'Latching onto whatever I can get / I don't know when I'll let go / Catching flies with my mouth wide open'. Thinking back to 'parasite', it seems like moriondo deliberately subverts what we expect from her in order to reap as many benefits from this analysis of emotions and relationships by placing distancing our expectations. 'sinking' also finds its home in a liminal space, as moriondo highlights the disconnect in this grey area, with juxtaposing lines like 'You're in-between a space I forget and remember / Then I'm half asleep' then 'Some things still remind you of everything'. This track encapsulates the messiness of moving through life and how things can come and go at different stages, sending us back to this image of ocean waves and unavoidable cycles.
The final two songs of this album share the heartbreak of finishing a good book, you want to savour every last second of this experience. The powerful harmonious introduction to 'pond', paired with calm piano chords, puts the emergency breaks on the trajectory of the album. Its opening lines, 'I thought my heart belonged to you and only you / And now I'm not sure what to do with it' makes you stare face-first into the mirror (or rather, pond reflection) at what, or who, you become after you give your whole self and heart to another person. In this track, we are invited to sit by moriondo as they sit pond-side with their emotions at the surface, confessing that 'I'm scared that I can't love somebody else / I feel lonely, like you're the only person I hear in the back of my mind', a fear that many of us share at the end of a road with another person. 'siren calling' is the perfect closure of the 'oyster' chapter, as moriondo questions the future in her final stages of this reflective state for one last track: 'And I'll always wonder when I'll be done / I'm siren calling the wrong one'. While beautifully wrapping up the project, this song leaves the door slightly open for more personal development. The track (and thus the whole project) finishes on the haunting line of 'I don't know how to be without somebody to follow' that rings in your ears long after the album falls silent. It feels like in this moment, moriondo has rinsed their relationships for their every meaning, scrutinising every dynamic, and all that's left to cover is themselves; to understand one's self and feel comfortable alone. In this moment, moriondo places herself next to every other person in their 20s as they reflect on their life so far as a young adult, but see a long path of progression and development yet to happen.
In 'oyster', chloe moriondo invites us into their underwater dreamworld, with all its salty heartbreak and kaleidoscope beauty. The project shares the unpredictability and unknown of the ocean, as you attempt to cover ground and fully understand people, emotions, and relationships yet can never quite reach the shore. moriondo reminds us of the inevitability of pain, but also joy, and the ability for juxtapositions to coexistent so we must find comfort in fluidity. 'oyster' is a beautiful guide on to how to swim -- and sometimes just stay afloat -- while trying to make life make sense in your twenties, for many tides to come.
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