Now Playing… is a biweekly column that releases every other Friday at 5 p.m. EST. Every other week, I will spotlight a lesser-known song or artist from a variety of genres. It will be a bit of music analysis, arts education, blogging, and more. Love it or hate it, I won’t let you down at exposing you to the cool art that is being made today from songs, to music videos, to live performances. If you’re also a cool young person constantly on the search for new music, let me supplement your listening diet!

Who even are you?

I’m a features writer at EnVi, and unsurprisingly, I have a passion for music. No joke—I listen to music practically every second of the day. After I cycle out of my favorites of that month, the race is on to find the next best thing. It is a never-ending journey, of which you will reap the fruits. I am also an avid consumer and maker of different types of media, and I love analyzing story and video techniques.

This column aims to introduce you to music that I love and why I love it, and to shine a light on smaller, independent artists and their B-sides that often don’t get the attention they deserve. Unraveling the layers to a song and musician through how they resonate with me makes the act of listening that much more special, and I hope it does for you, too.

You might know Coco and Clair Clair from their viral TikTok songs, but their sardonic lyrics and pop princess personas shine through in all their music. They are a delight.

Who are they?

Coco and Clair Clair are a 20-something American pop duo from Atlanta, Georgia. Each track in their catalog is embedded with addictive verses to make you feel like “that girl.” Their blunt lines in combination with their feminine tone makes for a vibe that’s misleadingly sweet—a guise before you get sucker-punched with their attitudes.

A stand-out line from the duo for me comes off their 2017 track “Outro”. “Hey, you’re lookin’ kinda ugly / Looking like Zuckerberg / Smelling like Kentucky.” Several lines later, the duo guarantees there is no man left standing with the verse, “You look like you in the blue lives committee.”

Their titular “Pop Star” embodies the duo’s persona of diva-licious pop princesses. “Pop star but I’m your boyfriend’s favorite DJ / Pay me just to party and I show up in my PJs. / Not my fault that your man can’t win us over / Looking this good doesn’t come for free / If you wanna hang with bad bitches, there’s gonna be a fee.”

I love it because their presence now, in the 2020s, becomes a clever commentary on pop culture today, given the reality of the good character we demand from our celebrities (rightfully so!). Coco and Clair Clair add their edge to the Y2K revival. They’re not so much mean girls as much as they are girls who know their worth, and aren’t afraid to speak the truth.

What also comes to mind when thinking about the duo are the American pop flops Daphne and Celeste. They smiled as they were booed off the stage at the rock-focused Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2000. Notorious for songs that were annoying, mean, and downright heinous, the pair also remained ahead of their time in a way by making music that is unserious. We love it because it’s artificial, and it leans into a performance that we love to hate, or hate to love.

What’s playing this week?

“Lamb” — Coco and Clair Clair ft. Porches

For Coco and Clair Clair, I want to focus on one of their calmer tracks, “Lamb” featuring British artist Porches. It utilizes their cold characters to juxtapose vulnerability.

Why this song?

This time, the character admits its mask. Even though they are surrounded by people and even a new lover, they would give up who they fundamentally are to be a nobody, just for the one who got away. “I been doing good, I’m on tour in London / But I would trade it all to be your nobody.” Is that not the epitome of romance, to have your desire have precedence over your identity? It’s the perfect track of light agony to shed tears and shake your ass gently to.

With Porches on the track, it channels the vibe of indie pop singer Gus Dapperton. The singer’s almost flat tone adds a new color to Coco and Clair Clair’s usual pop electric offerings. It is a grounding for the duo’s soft vocals, and also presents the other side’s perspective. “I saw you, I saw you / I watched and I followed.”

What really makes this song is the way the vocals and rhythm layer over each other in the very end. It represents that mixed bag of emotions and the release of structure and control—the very opposite of what a pop princess would have.

Still, these pop girlies get everything they want. Porches closes with, “Slipped in something nicer for you / When I saw you coming.”

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Thanks for reading! Tune back in in two weeks to hear more about what I’ve been listening to. This spring, what have YOU been listening to and why do you love it? Tweet your answer with #EnViNowPlaying, and I might share your answers in the next edition! 

Want more music recommendations? Check out EnVi’s Artist Spotlights!

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