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Apr 20, 2023 By Caleb Campbell

California singer/songwriter Chloe Gallardo writes music occupying the gauzy intersection of bedroom pop and shoegaze-tinged indie rock, coupled with dark storytelling and revelatory lyricism. The results are angry, brooding, and vulnerable, but Gallardo often softens those jagged edges with bittersweet pop melodies, conjuring a reliably striking contrast of tones. Gallardo has been steadily sharing new singles over the past several years, with the exception of a brief quiet period last year.

She broke that silence this year with a new single, “Last Dance,” followed by last month’s “God Is Dead,” offering the first taste of her forthcoming debut album, Defamator. The full record is out next month on May 12th via Taxi Gauche Records, but today she’s back again with another new track, “Bloodline,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Bloodline” once again finds Gallardo balancing airy indie rock with a simmering melancholic undercurrent. The track begins in a chiming acoustic mode but steadily gains hints of grit and distortion with the addition of some hazy effects. The gauzy indie guitars and subtly catchy melodies lend Gallardo’s vocals an unexpected warmth and nostalgic charm, one that contrasts well with her understated delivery and longing tones. Lyrically, the track unpacks the turmoil of adulthood, exploring the ache of feeling like a wayward disappointment: “I’m fucked up / I’m the girl you call your daughter / Wasting away / Can’t even hold on to her blue collar / Maybe in time / She’ll finally get her act together / She seems just fine / Wonder if time will make her better?”

Gallardo says of the track, “’Bloodline’ is about feeling like a gigantic disappointment to my family (hence the name) and realizing that my parents are to blame for a lot of my struggles with mental illness. I wrote this song when I didn’t have a day job and I had just moved back home so I felt like I had really taken a step back in my life. I also was going through a series of failed relationships and I just felt like a burden to them. I guess my goal for this song was to just convince them that I was trying my best in a set of unfortunate circumstances.”

Check out the song and video below. Defamator is out May 12th via Taxi Gauche Records.