Fast becoming the 2021 Artist You Need To Know, Claud has released a fourth track from their eagerly anticipated debut album Super Monster. ‘Guard Down‘ is 3:26 minutes of pining pop perfection, as our intrepid hero braces themselves for a return to New York City and a possible run in with last summer’s romantic interest.
Co-written with Cameron Hale and Mary Weitz, Claud says of the song, “I have the hardest time opening up and letting my guard down. When I wrote this song, I had just found out somebody I had feelings for started seeing someone else and my immediate emotional response was to convince myself I didn’t care, even though I really did. The verses and chorus sort of make fun of how I keep myself closed off, but my rap towards the end of the song is a super honest stream of consciousness.”
‘Guard Down’ is the last in a stellar run of pre-album tracks taken from Super Monster. Previous song ‘Cuff Your Jeans‘, ‘Soft Spot‘ and ‘Gold’ found widespread acclaim upon release.
Standing at 5 feet tall with green and blue hair (hair color subject to change), 21-year old Claud Mintz is a prolific and industrious talent. The first signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ new label imprint with Dead Oceans, Claud has been stealthily releasing impressively agile pop songs for the last two years.
Super Monster is 13 songs of irresistible charm and a vertiginous but joyous coming-of-age reckoning with young love. A skilled lyricist with an extraordinary gift for writing infectious melodies, Claud sees relationships as games of endless wonder, intrigue and second-guesses; a roller-coaster thrilling you, even when it’s terrifying. From beginning to end, the sparkling tunes capture the assorted stages of a relationship’s delight and dejection – the giddy sensation of a first kiss, the heartsick longing of a pending rejection and the reluctant call for a requisite breakup.
