Clara Joy Releases New LP, Shares "You Just Liked My Item"

NYC-based songwriter Clara Joy has released her new album What We Have Now via Shimmy-Disc. Yesterday she released new single "You Just Liked My Item," which is accompanied by a Su Koko-directed video. What We Have Now was recorded in her NYC home over the course of several years, and was co-produced with Kramer, who completed the LP at his studio in North Carolina in December 2024. Today's release follows previous singles "Find Things Beautiful" and "Breakdown," which have earned press support from Chorus.fm, Americana Highways, Stereo Embers, and more.

The new track is a slow-core folk ballad shaken to its core by a vocal performance that spans the space between a weep and a battle cry. Clara sheers off pieces of her heart, and you want to catch them. "The song uses the phrase ‘liked my item’ which is taken from online shopping," she explains. "The song is about desperation and questioning reality under a society based around consumption."

What We Have Now is a love-letter to New York City, written by a breaking heart weathering the deep indigo night of a soul realizing dawn will release it from the dried tears of youth. There is no brighter or harsher wasteland of self-discovery than the one in which we see that childhood is a dream and the now is something we will have to fabricate alone, from those broken mirror shards of memories in service to a world that does not seem to know how to care for us any longer. Full of feeling and shepherded by Clara’s intensely honest vocals, these songs transcend place and time to share a universe of wonders beneath the hard-wrought questioning of the deeply human condition we are all living within.

Full of feeling and shepherded by Clara’s intensely honest vocals, these songs transcend place and time to share a universe of wonders beneath the hard-wrought questioning of the deeply human condition we are all living within.

Clara Joy is a songwriter full of melody and vision. These ‘home’ recordings were made by Clara in NYC between 2020 and 2024. The songs were then Arranged, Mixed & Mastered by Kramer in December 2024 in his Studio in the mountains of North Carolina.

Speaking of Clara, Kramer says that she is, "...what we have all been waiting for since the passing of Daniel Johnston - a new performer who sees and hears the world around her, agonizes over its endless parade of absurdities, and responds by setting out to create art that transcends itself and conveys the kind of love and optimism that helps us to survive the maelstroms. In short, Clara Joy's artistry is miraculous in every way, and in every sense of the word. It's embedded in her genes, and this debut LP bears only a hint of what's to come. There's just no telling where this brave young artist will take us."

Clara is at the dawn of her career and Shimmy-Disc is proud to bring this amazing work to the world.