claire rousay – a little death
On new album a little death, claire rousay re-embraces her diaristic style, turning the textures of everyday life into something quietly transcendent
The title of claire rousay’s latest album might allude to post-coital bliss, but la petite mort was also used by philosopher Roland Barthes to describe the pleasure of losing yourself in a book and momentarily escaping the world’s ideological grip. A similar sensation arises when listening to rousay’s self-styled brand of ambient-emo, which reframes snapshots of daily life in emotionally charged contexts.
Marking a return to her diaristic compositions following 2024’s pop-adjacent record sentiment, a little death opens with a spoken word meditation on loneliness. 'conditional love' follows with the hum of white noise and the sound of hands searching for something lost, while 'just' sounds like a home coming to life, before M Sage’s piano and More Eaze’s violin crack open the windows and let the outside world in.
Standout track 'somehow' pairs static and snatched conversations with a candid reflection on how financial insecurity can make music culture feel inaccessible. The title track closes the album in a wash of strings and the clatter of everyday ephemera that evokes the stillness after a night which felt endless. It’s a fitting finale to a record that speaks to notions of presence and absence, and the impermanence that underpins all things.
Listen to: just, somehow, a little death