Claud - Me and the Music

Does everything have to feel so heavy all the time? Claud Mintz fights with this question all the time. Not polite little tiffs, either: Big, dragout, existential wars, the kind that might push you to eventually change the tenor of your whole life. The 10 songs on their rich and resplendent third album Me and the Music find the 27-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter-producer grappling with that question and coming up, triumphantly, with something close to an answer: Things can be heavy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.

Me and the Music lead single “She Doesn’t Love Me” is, in many ways, the core of the album—a light-feeling song about what it’s like to be queer and trans in America in the 2020s. (It is a strident, driving anthem that doesn’t shy away from pain—and still makes you want to, as Claud sings on the track, put your “beers in the air.”) When Claud wrote the song with Heaven and DiRusso, they felt firmly that it should be a yacht rock song; the demo ended up “lo-fi and indie” anyway. Me and the Music was produced by Claud and John Congleton (Alvvays, St. Vincent) and represents a full-circle moment for Claud, who finally felt, with this record, that they were a confident enough producer to assume a co-producer role (and have since gone on to produce a string of viral singles by Romy Mars). Collaboration is, of course, an essential part of Claud’s work—who are we without our friends? In addition to Claud, they’re one-quarter of Shelly, a band they founded with Clairo, Noa Getzug and Josh Mehling. Me and the Music sees Claud reuniting with their longtime collaborator Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan) on “The Legend.” It explores the feeling of being deeply in love with someone who doesn’t want to be seen with you, says Claud: “It’s sort of about a shitty relationship, and wanting to flaunt love, but not being able to do that,” they say. But, if Me and the Music has a true love song, it’s “I Owe You,” a dream-pop road song that’s devotional and rich. It captures the spirit of Me and the Music as a whole: Taking things day by day, taking stock of what’s around you, and embracing the beautiful things when they arrive. That doesn’t feel so heavy.