On the 19th of July, chloe moriondo released ‘Lonely (Planet Earth)’ in collaboration with Dillon Francis. Describing the track as “a song for aliens who discovered Owl City and dance music at the same time”, the bedroom-pop singer turned expressive alt-pop star promises yet another interesting direction to her music.
The song grabs the listener’s attention from the first second, opening with the iconic and familiar line “I’d like to make myself believe”, referencing Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’. This line is continued with Chloe’s own perception of planet Earth, singing “I wish it all was just a dream, ’cause planet Earth feels lonely”.
The song goes on to sketch scenes of feeling alone and surreal, wondering if anybody is out there, roaming the city at night, asking “Hello? Is anyone’s heart breaking like mine?” All of this is accompanied by a steady dance beat and minimal other instrumentals. As Dillon Francis, the collaborator on this song, is an electronic music producer, this influence is apparent.
Chloe’s voice is heavily autotuned. This seems very purposeful, committing to the dance genre inspirations, and emphasising the surreal and disconnected feelings with an almost robotic voice effect. The song’s universe is expanded by a music video which further emphasises the song’s vibes, showing distorted high-saturation footage of clubs, late-night city scenes, and a vaguely visible alien mask throughout it all setting the surreal scenes.
The musical elements such as voice effects and influences from dance music were already explored in the songs on Moriondo’s 2022 album SUCKERPUNCH, and they are even further developed in this track, promising new directions and explorations that chloe moriondo is heading to. As she has developed her musical style a lot over the years, this track may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it proves that she can hold herself up in dance-inspired tracks too. She has created an interesting song that is both a club banger and an interesting storyteller, setting vibes where one can imagine an alien entering the club where this song is playing late at night, and it would fit the song just right.
Written by: Marieke Weeda
Edited by: Nèri Cliteur
