Clever Girls are an indie rock band formed by lead Diane Jean in Burlington, Vermont. Hot on the heels of November’s ‘Remember Pluto’ (a track captured brilliantly by Abbie Morin in a feature over at Talkhouse), the outfit have just released a new single on Egghunt Records.
Titled ‘Spark’, the song feels like an evolution for Clever Girls, meatier indie rock elements adding a raw directness to the dreamy emoti-pop of previous songs. The verses sit in lulls between bursts of big guitars and crashing drums, Jean’s vocals at times soft and unassuming but always edged with something darker. As the title suggests, the song uses the imagery of starting a fire to explore similarly destructive and purging phenomena in our lives.
Therefore, ‘Spark’ might have all the emotion of previous Clever Girls songs, but there’s a sense of violence that’s new. Images of gasoline and fights and buried teeth sit next to vulnerable sentiment, a juxtaposition that is perhaps best illustrated in a line near the beginning. “And this hallway stinks like piss,” Jean sings, in a moment that mixes grimy reality with something tender, “but I still feel her fingertips pressed against my lips.”