diary 001E

The Artist

Clairo is the recording name of Claire Cottrill, an American singer-songwriter who grew up in Massachusetts and started uploading bedroom-recorded songs to the internet as a teenager. She became one of the defining faces of the late-2010s "bedroom pop" wave, a scene built on lo-fi home recordings, webcam-era intimacy, and a DIY sensibility spread through YouTube and SoundCloud. Her sound leans on soft, conversational vocals, hazy keyboards, and unhurried grooves, with an emotional register that sits somewhere between diary entry and daydream. diary 001 is her first official EP, released while she was still a teenager and just as her online following was exploding into real industry attention. It set the template for the more polished full-lengths that would follow, but it captures her at her rawest and most homespun.

The Album

diary 001 arrived in 2018 via Fader Label, compiling a batch of songs Clairo had been sharing online with a handful of newly recorded tracks. Much of it retains the intimate, laptop-recorded feel of her early uploads, with modest production values that lean into hiss, drum machines, and small-room vocals rather than trying to scrub them out. The EP followed the viral success of "Pretty Girl," a homemade video that racked up millions of views and became the calling card that pulled her into the spotlight. Thematically it sits squarely in teenage interior life: crushes, self-worth, boredom, longing, and the slow work of figuring out who you are. It's short, unassuming, and very much of its moment.

Listen For

The bedroom-pop palette. Listen to how much of the EP is built from soft synth pads, programmed beats, and close-mic'd vocals. The "small" sound is a feature, not a limitation.

The voice up close. Clairo tends to sing just above a whisper, and the mix keeps her right in your ear. Notice how much emotional weight she pulls from restraint rather than power.

Track-to-track shifts in polish. The EP moves between more finished productions and rougher sketches, ending on "How - demo," which is explicitly presented as unfinished. Pay attention to how that affects the listening arc.

The "Pretty Girl" hook. The song that made her famous rides a simple, sing-song melody over a bouncy beat. Notice how the lyric turns a compliment into something more pointed and self-aware.

Teenage-diary specifics. From the snack-food imagery of "Flaming Hot Cheetos" to the crush logic of "B.O.M.D." and the devotional register of "4EVER," the writing trades in small, specific details rather than grand statements.