The band of “best friends” initially formed and released music in October 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, releasing 'Steeeam' and ‘Natural’. The tracks grew as a wonderful distraction from the global pandemic, and later as sleeper hits due to Clairo’s dedicated fanbase, though the band quietly disbanded after only a few months.
As the members continued to release their own music individually, word slowly dissipated of them ever returning to bandhood. However, while touring her album ‘Charm’ and performing at festivals, Clairo has sneakily worked Shelly tracks into her live sets, stirring speculation of the band’s reuniting.
Now, these two new singles have been released at a time when the world needed them most. Clairo herself has been advocating for the people of Gaza and Sudan by participating in benefit concerts, donating to relief funds, and speaking out at her concerts (Coachella included).
‘Cross Your Mind’ is a quiet ache of memory. It revisits the haze of a high school relationship and all the misunderstood moments and words unsaid, the holding back. “Hard to recreate / The way I felt when I was seventeen” captures the longing to recapture a sense of the love once felt. It's a song about nostalgia you can’t shake, the kind that lingers like an echo.
‘Hartwell’, on the other hand, leans into the slacker rock of Shelly’s past. Shelly has mastered the feeling of the high school friend’s garage band practice, sitting in the sun while you imagine your future. ‘Hartwell’ opens with laughter and a casual voice note, “I’m recording this… while drinking a Baja Blast” before launching into a meditation on time and regret. Lyrics like “I wanna smoke in the room that I grew up in” and “Wanna do all the things I said I’d do when I got to college” explore the yearning to reconcile past dreams with present realities.
Together, these tracks are cosy and distant, like songs being played in the room next door, drifting through a cracked window. Shelly’s return feels like a soft, sunlit reminder that growing up is often about revisiting where you started and forgiving yourself for not getting it all right the first time around. We can only hope that Shelly will stick around and provide us with more hits to distract us from the world.
Molly Spencer
Image: ‘Shelly 2 Official Imagery’
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