Chloe Southern - “This Time Last Year”
Photo by Brea Lynn
We have been waiting for a new Chloe Southern track ever since we featured “Oil & Water” back in 2022. Today, we are very pleased to inform you that the wait is over upon the release of her new single, “This Time Last Year,” a song that traverses the often inescapable nature of emotional trauma.
There is an aggressive nature to “This Time Last Year,” both sonically and in relation to its subject matter, which is audibly obvious at the track’s onset. Gritty electric guitar pulses with the kick drum, with digital relics intermittently dispersed throughout the sonic space, inviting listeners directly into the production.
Southern’s vocal arrives, conjuring the energy of Suki Waterhouse and Julia Jacklin, delivering lines of lyrics that are bound to resonate with anyone who’s ever been left to sift through the savage remains of heartbreak. The performance is raw and emotionally-charged, allowing every word to reveal an honest sense of urgency.
On the pre-chorus, layers of auxiliary vocals emerge, elevating “This Time Last Year” to an angsty level of sound akin to ‘90s-era Alanis Morissette, yet still clinging tightly to the modern realm of indie rock. These layers peel away for the haunting refrain, allowing the ebb and flow to wash over the listener just as deeply as the lyrical content.
During its near four-and-a-half-minute course, “This Time Last Year” runs through a gamut of memories that are unmistakably painful, yet cathartic in the way that they are being conveyed– as though exorcising the demons of a past relationship. This release is the first glimpse into Southern’s forthcoming EP and we are confident that, once you press that play button, you will join us in anxiously awaiting the rest of it.