In the music video for “So Perfect,” singer/songwriter Chloe J, touches on a fragility that is both breathtakingly endearing and darkly cold, suggesting an eroticism not as accessible in other tracks released out of her scene thus far and yet stepping away from an experimental tone one might expect it to be delivered through. There’s a simplicity to the songwriting style in play here that still somehow supplies a vulnerability in the vocal harmonies I haven’t been able to shake from my heart since first hearing the song this past November, and for a critic like myself, this is every bit the stimulating track the fall season needed.
There’s no ignoring the exposed element the singing introduces to the grander scheme of things here, and in more ways than one, this is the feature that defines “So Perfect” more than anything else. The video is an artsy document that alludes to progressive conceptualisms left out of the song as it’s released in single form, but there’s no straying away from the narrative here no matter how it’s being presented to the audience. It’s ghostly and clandestine, but undisputedly at the center of every aching release of catharsis in the verses and melodies the same.
The harmony in the chorus is as breakable as a thin piece of glass, but the imagery in the music video lends a certain level of strength to this component of the hook I would go so far as to deem it warm and conflictive with the overall style of the song here. Duality isn’t something that you can force in this kind of a release; it’s got to be natural, and if there was any debate as to whether or not Chloe J had an it-factor required to win favor among the American and foreign undergrounds before this release, “So Perfect” should put such arguments to rest.
I just heard about this artist for the first time in the past couple of months, but if what this release is what her future output is going to look, sound, and feel like, I don’t think Chloe J will be a short-lived singer/songwriter in the primetime at all. This is a good time for soloists who want to experiment with elements of emotion and evocative songcraft the same, and here, both are being toyed with to such an extent that listeners are guaranteed to walk away from “So Perfect” having felt something from its sterling introduction to a surreal, hip-hop-influenced strain of new pop music.
