Revolving around the mistakes made back then, Clara La San carries potency within that rumination. ‘Made Mistakes’ is the debut album that confidently showcases Clara La San’s musical sensibilities that might not exactly have the most unique touches, but are still captivating with the melodic atmosphere and the sharp performances that she carries throughout.
Making the time to recognize mistakes in our lives will take some time for us to accept them. Flaws, as much as they can be damaging in a person’s social environment, can be recognized and fixed in due time, yet they can still be made even when a person continues to mature and grow. It’s unavoidable in living life after all, and there is a pang in accepting what those flaws have done, yet the only way to solve that is to learn past that moment. For Clara La San within her long-awaited debut album, ‘Make Mistakes’, she finds herself revolving around the flaws that were made in the past.
While Clara La San has put together music on her Soundcloud and has been a songwriter for other UK acts before, ‘Make Mistakes’ is unmistakably the debut album that presents Clara La San’s confidence as a musician. Her vocals carry an alluringly sharp tone, fitting deftly within these pockets of trap-embellished alternative R&B compositions that bring in enough swampy atmospheric depth and punchy textures to float alongside Clara La San’s vocals that may be lilting, but have a subtle strength that gives more character to her singing. All leads to a lot of these songs sticking with razor-sharp quality. The quaking soundscape of ‘Runnin’ where the repeated melodic mantras pair well with the drilling impact of the instrumentation, the fleeting beauty that comes from the atmospheric walls of synths on ‘Talking To You’, the warbling bass and the gleaming keys that give ‘Far Away’ its sense of brimming strength that the vocals effectively embody, the spiraling hookyness of ‘Upset With Ya’ where the melody amidst the whirring soundscape swoops with a gracefully magnetic pull, the chilly synth melodies on ‘Solo’ that gives the song an intimately comforting touch, and the tender piano melody of ‘Made Me Feel’ that ends the record with a pretty atmosphere, just before the bulky bass synth gives the final leg of that song some strong affirmation before it puts the record on a close.
Clara La San does manage to peel into what emotional conflict there is within the record, as it essentially revolves around a relationship that is on a push-and-pull, where both partners present their flaws that shake the relationship apart. Whether that be Clara La San’s emotionality that breaks into irrational territory or the partner in question that doesn’t exactly treat Clara’s love with a stoic approach, it eventually devolves the relationship to fall apart, to the point where there is bitterness towards how Clara sees the woman that the ex-partner seeks. Yet there is a glint of trying to get this to still stay with Clara, especially when there are points where she is willing to provide comfort to him and let that yearning linger within her, but she eventually has to acknowledge the pain that she can’t exactly erase. A melancholic emotion that gives ‘Made Me Feel’ quite some heartache, allowing that ex to say his final words before leaving Clara La San alone in her space. Perhaps the only way to give her peace amidst the burden that the ex has left her, but leave an open window where a potential connection can still occur.
It doesn’t exactly have the most striking approach toward how the album sounds, where there are parts in the mixing that are inconsistent and melodies that could have been allowed to stick with much more potency. And despite the lyricism giving enough emotive touches for that reflection to have some insight, Clara La San still has some ways to go for her writing to get into a deeper mode to have the emotions that linger within her storytelling open up even further, even if that personal edge within the narrative still do carry some weight. It just needed to be fleshed out, giving those details to cut even deeper.
For a long-awaited debut that’s years in the making, Clara La San manages to deliver a potent record within ‘Made Mistakes’, where her grasp on the sound that she wanted to approach does land with a lot of affectionate sensibilities through the performances, compositions, and writing. Might not exactly the most out-there record in terms of this brand of alternative R&B besides additional production and lyrical issues that could have been sharpened better, yet when it does have enough solid melodic and textural touches on display, it does allow the record to gleam within its atmosphere. Mistakes might be made here and there, but when we do learn from them, it will allow us to become significantly better as a result.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Runnin’, ‘Talking To You’, ‘Far Away’, ‘Upset With Ya’, ‘Solo’, ‘Made Me Feel’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Things You Didn’t Know’