Sydney-based pop artist Yen Strange has shared a cruisy new single titled ‘Clueless In Suburbia’, described as “an ode to suburban wastelands” that “captures the bittersweet feelings of smalltown life”.
The track’s conflicted sentiment is reflected in its sonics, as Strange – who was raised in the far-south coastal town of Moruya, NSW – pairs glittering synths, hazy atmospherics and a trap-esque beat with dour grand piano chords and restrained, palpably melancholic vocal runs.
Opening the track, she sings: “Sometimes I will stand in the middle of my room / And stare at the floor, wishing I had stuff to do / My place is pretty quiet, watch some TV eat some food / Right here behind the violet light, I’m sick of late night news.”
‘Clueless In Suburbia’ arrives today (January 27) alongside a video helmed by Strange herself in tandem with Maybelle Thieu, snapping between shots of the artist in her room, on a bridge, in a countryside field and dancing on top of cars, clad in range of goth-inspired attire (including, for the latter scenes, grisly bat wings).
Have a look at the video for ‘Clueless In Suburbia’ below:
In a press release, Strange explained that her new single “started with some simple melancholy chords on [her] keyboard”, coming together in a particularly rocky chunk of 2020. “I didn’t have much going on,” she continued. “I was bored and frustrated with my mediocre, abysmal life.
“Looking back on my youth I realised I felt the same as I did when I was young, stuck in the middle of nowhere in a small town without anything to look forward to and no hope of getting out. But I kinda like these empty places where people only pass through. They’re ugly but they’re beautiful and the weeds in the concrete watched me grow up whether I like it or not.
Strange teamed up with Fletcher Matthews (The Buoys, RAAVE TAPES, Dear Seattle) and Alice Ivy on the track’s production, noting that her final touches to the mix came with “that quirky guitar picking that shines through in the outro”. She cited Ivy’s work on the track as integral to its sound, saying the Melbourne artist’s input served as “the icing on the cake to what has become a sad Suburban anthem”.
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In addition to being her first release for 2022, ‘Clueless In Suburbia’ comes as Strange’s fourth single altogether. She made her debut last June with the track ‘Donnie Darko’, then followed it up with ‘Go Away’ in October (as well as an acoustic redux the next month) and ‘Intro’ in December.