Space Girl Archives - Totally Wired Magazine

If you’ve heard of Frances Forever, or read Why We Love: Frances Forever, you may already be familiar with chloe moriondo (stylised in lower case). The reason being, Frances Forever re-released ‘Space Girl’ to feature chloe moriondo. The change in lyrics in the verse that chloe sings adds an extra dimension to the catchiness that was already there.

In essence, chloe moriondo is an 18 year old singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. I discovered her a couple years ago, back when ‘Lemon Boy’ by cavetown was big in my world. He helped produce her debut album that she released at 16. I envisage them to have quite a fraternal relationship, with older brother Robbie seeing success blooming in chloe and striving to help her achieve it. Back then, she was a shy closeted ukulele girl on YouTube. Famous for her red cheeks, button nose, round glasses and yellow walls, she was the embodiment of cute and sweet. Her voice seemed effortless and accompanied her shyness like sugar in a cup of tea.

Since then, she seems to have developed her musical style. What started off as covers became original content, which continues to mature. She has briefly spoken about her issues when it comes to the duality and dichotomy of being famous whilst still in full-time education. However, I would argue that this has improved the strength and honesty of her music. Nowadays, her innocence has been replaced with outward subtle neediness. She screams to be seen, heard and understood. Teenage angst bleeds out of her single ‘Girl on TV’. The music video depicts the insecurity exaggerated by social media and her wish to be what she sees everyone else be.

There’s undoubtedly a certain nostalgia listening to music written by a teenager. Her content is relatable in a far-off sense for most, but remains convincing. This includes her latest song ‘I Eat Boys’, released today, which will be played on Annie Mac’s Future Sounds at 6p.m. Yet another angsty bop filled with feminist hope mixed with lesbian sympathy. It has potential to become one of those songs that you play on repeat until you are sick of them. Personally, I will definitely be listening to it until I know all the lyrics.

21 year old Frances Garrett is a fundamentally fabulous up and coming indie icon. Masqueraded behind the stage name Frances Forever, an ode to the song Francis Forever by indie inspiration Mitski. Anyone who’s anyone has heard their monumental track ‘Space Girl’ which has blown up on TikTok in the last couple months, but their discography is so rich that to only be familiar with the viral hit quite frankly is a crime. If you’re a fan of artists such as Clairo, Sidney Gish and Cavetown, then get ready to add a new favourite artist to your roster.

Since releasing their EP pockets back in 2018, Garrett has made noise and gained acclaim around their own city of Boston, but aptly disturbed the airways all around the world. Hazy dreamscapes, almost touching on slight psychedelic sounds, all in combination to serenade your brain into a high that’s near impossible to get over.

Track 1 from pockets is the crooning cry inside my car, which casually goes through the strains of mental health within young people, tuned to an addictive, upbeat and jolly sounding song. I think it goes to show the strength of an artist to go into depth even if casually, but make their problems a sugary singalong. Art is an expressive form of talent, and to turn your life into a canvas for the world to consume and hopefully relate to, is something that has had a dramatic increase since the digital age of music in the last decade. The quality of meaning and personality that modern artists put into practice is abundant, and Garrett is no exception.

However on the contrary, you have tracks like fuck u, taken from pockets also, which takes the lyrical theme and explores the correlation between the meaning, the lyrics themselves and how a real human would compose themselves when going through those emotion. It’s almost self aware, one of the lyrics being “Because i’m only thinking ’bout you, and only you and only you / I can’t think of anyone but you / The only rhyme in this song rhymes with you and only you” which at first glance would come across as ‘lazy’ songwriting, but you look at the realm of the track and that’s precisely the joke, and it’s actually quite clever really. One thing Garrett has made clear is their stance on the stigma of ‘how to’ write a song, “Something that I hate about music these days is, ‘Oh, you can’t put that lyric in because that’s, like, a joke lyric, that’s not serious music’. I really think that you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously as a songwriter.” Which is something to really think about, if you want to be true, and want your audience to feel comfortable enough to relate to your experiences, then why become somebody you’re not?

Other tracks from Garrett such as the second half of EP pockets, or single Frankenstein Wannabe, are just as efficacious as the tracks mentioned above. Garrett’s musical portfolio is wondrous, and I think the only sort of let down is that there isn’t a crazy amount of music to listen to as of yet. But that’s part of the thrill of discovering an artist such as Frances Forever, you get to watch them release more and grow. You as the listener are as much of the process as the songwriter, and so whatever the future holds for Garrett is absolutely boundless. Not to mention the heaps of covers on their official YouTube channel dating all the way back to 2015, which if you’re desperate to hear more from the Boston badass, I cannot quantify how much you should binge through it all. In just December of last year they were signed to MOM+POP, so I think it’s safe to say 2021 could bring a copious amount of content to delight your ears for years to come.

So I think it best to love you and leave you with the track that’s done the world the pleasure of introducing Frances Forever to the global audience of TikTok; Space Girl. But here’s a live version instead, because this past year has been far too unkind to the live music scene. So take this as a reminder of how fantastic and inspiring live performances are, but also to show off the talent of Frances and friends. Keep your eyes on this one, like the route to the Space Girl herself, the only way for Frances Forever is up.

GET THE MAG