In just 4 short years, California-based Korean American singer-songwriter Clara C has achieved what millions of others aspire to on a daily basis, yet only few succeed with doing. Perhaps as a result of the massive push she received from winning the first year of Wong Fu Productions and JC Penney’s ISA (International Secret Agents) competition, Clara has become a widely-acclaimed household name for many an ecstatic YouTube enthusiast. With a sweetly unique vocal style and a brilliant mind full of wonderful compositions and arrangements, it is no wonder that Clara C has rightfully sprung from the depths of a sea of YouTube cover artists to become her own individual being capable of taking the indie music world by storm with some awesome covers on the side along the way. After two successful full-production albums in the form of “The Art in My Heart” and “esc.,” Clara decided to take a different route with her third full release in the form of ”Organika” — an album full of purely acoustic flare.
Within the album’s eight tracks, Clara’s great tone and amazing nuance is set on full display as she expertly croons and strums her way through six tried-and-true hits from her past works, as well as two entirely new productions. “Nayelli” and “One Look” are those two wholly original tracks in question, and each of them maintain that sweet and relatable style that the singer-songwriter has become renowned for, while all the while bringing something new to the table. “Nayelli” plays like a soft-toned, rollicking folk number with a beautiful lyric to match its low-key composition, whereas “One Look” features some nice keyboard work opposite one of Clara’s most brutally honest lyrics and vocals yet. Each of the two tracks fit in quite nicely among the rest of the album’s tracks, which prove to be a delightful ensemble of past works flipped into stripped acoustic numbers with some well-balanced shifts in their arrangements provided for variety’s sake.
The greatest fans of Clara will be able to spot these differences on first listen and be enamored by her ability to rearrange her own song in even the slightest way to add some extra value to its new acoustic version. “Quesadilla” features some guitar work and a clever re-arrangement during its second verse that could only be described as “swaggerific,” while “Heartstrings” has essentially been flipped on its head and entirely re-arranged in a catchy way that doesn’t take away from the value of the song’s lyric or its original composition at all — rather, it helps fit the song better to an acoustic setting, and the vocals couldn’t sound any more impressively pristine. The album ends with the love song “Fish,” and at that moment, if you hadn’t somehow already, you can just tell how much the artist in mind wears her heart on the sleeve when she performs.
There is a particular sincerity about Clara C’s work that has always set her apart from the millions of other YouTube artists when she had first started, and nowadays it can still be said in relation between her and the billions upon billions of musicians in the world, period. For those who haven’t yet heard of her yet, “Organika” serves as a great sampler of this artist’s work, featuring two new songs, two from off of her debut album, and four from off of her second. It’s very likely that this will be the one that will help you realize how great she really is. If you haven’t yet, purchase “Organika” by Clara C right here and right now on iTunes for just $7.92!
Rating: 5/5
You can keep up with the artist by following her on Facebook and on Twitter.
