FEATURE: Spotlight: FLETCHER — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

FLETCHER

_________

THIS is an artist I have featured before…

but I don’t know if I have included her in Spotlight. One of the most important voices in modern Pop, FLETCHER (Cari Elise Fletcher) is someone everyone needs to know about. Her breakthrough single, Undrunk, was released in January 2019 and became her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. She put out her debut album, Girl of My Dreams, last year. The New Jersey-born artist is someone I have been a fan of since her early E.P.s like You Ruined New York City for Me (2019). FLETCHER put out I Believe You in support of sexual assault survivors in March 2018, writing a #MeToo-inspired letter to Billboard. FLETCHER is one of the most influential and important L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists. She is a huge supporter of organisations such as GLAAD, The Trevor Project, and It Gets Better. In December 2021, FLETCHER stated that she identifies as Queer. Before coming to a couple of reviews for Girl of My Dreams, there are some interviews from 2022 and this year around the album that I want to start off with. In October 2022, DORK spoke with the phenomenal FLETCHER:

“Fletcher is a pop star who encompasses a whole whirlwind of emotions and feelings. There’s no element of mystery. No boundaries and no filters. “My artistry is so closely tied with my personal life and my humanity,” she tells us from a hotel room in Australia. In case you hadn’t realised, Fletcher is global now. “It’s such a crazy moment, and I’m about to go on my fourth headline tour of this year,” she adds. See? Major. “My art becomes my personal lived experiences in such an in-depth, open your diary and read a page from it kind of way. The beautiful thing about my trajectory so far is that I’ve grown up with my fans. We have grown up together. Any feedback I get from them is like, oh, you’ve narrated my heartbreak or my first time falling in love or going through a really serious breakup.”

Those fans have followed Fletcher as she has detailed her ups and downs, culminating in a wide-ranging and emotionally fulfilling debut album. “My artistry has evolved,” she explains. “Lyrically or sonically, it has evolved as I have evolved and I have new experiences. Rolling out this album, I’m picking up where I left off two years ago. I’ve told things in a pretty chronological order of where I am in my life. It lands us at the girl of my dreams.”

The album is very much a continuation of the story that Fletcher has been telling right back to her debut single ‘War Paint’ in 2015. “I’m just bringing songs back around and changing the narrative and the story to how it fits in my current moment,” she says about some of the intriguing little easter eggs dotted around the record for fans to discover. Don’t worry, we won’t spoil the surprise. “Getting to share that with people who have become so keen on the personal details of my life and are privy to that information feels like a fun journey we get to go on together. You guys know all the tea, you know all the gossip, and it feels good to share it,” she exclaims.

In many ways, Cari Elise Fletcher was born to be a pop star, but she knew that she had to be a different kind of pop star. “I started with classical vocal training when I was five,” she explains. “Music was always a part of my life. I grew up singing in church, which was a journey I had growing up in a small conservative town, knowing that I was queer from a young age. I was a Disney Princess impersonator for kids’ parties, as well as Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana. That was my job in high school. I went on to attend the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU’s School of Performing Arts, and it was there that I was taking classes in recording and marketing and business and all these different routes within the music industry.”

Naturally chafing against this very regimented old-school approach, Fletcher began to imagine a different way forward. “I realised that all the examples of people in pop music that I grew up with were this very picture-perfect, polished version of what it looks like to be an artist,” she reflects. “I thought I’m never going to be an artist if this is what it is. I love this, and I love pop music, but I don’t relate. I really wanted to see someone expressing the depths of their soul and their humanity. Their mess ups and confusion, pain and suffering, joy and liberation – the whole range of emotions in an unfiltered way. From such a young age, I was like I need to be the artist that I needed when I was little. I want to be that for somebody else. Everything that I do is with that little version of me in mind. If I needed that, then odds are somebody needs that too”.

The album arrives in a moment characterised by a number of singular artists who do things on their own terms, unencumbered by prevailing expectations or the principles of what you should do as a pop star. It’s a lineage where Fletcher fits right in. “I do think we’re in a time now that conceptually people are less afraid to take risks in terms of the things that they’re talking about,” she explains. “I’m super inspired by Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Halsey and Billie Eilish. They are all artists that are so unapologetically themselves. They don’t really give a fuck about what other people are making, and that’s something that I admire so much.”

Ultimately, Fletcher’s journey over the past seven years has been one of progression but also reflection. It’s taken a lot of time and a lot of healing, but she knows exactly who she is and is ready to be the pop icon she always wanted to be on her own terms. “The title track sums up everything,” she concludes. “I’ve had all these lovers, and I’ve thought they were all going to be the one, but I’ve had my heart broken a million times, and why does tequila not hit anymore? Why does none of these things feel like they used to? What is it I’m missing, and It’s like, oh duh, it’s you. “Now I lay me down to sleep because I’m the only bitch I need, I’m all hers, and she’s all mine, and I’ll love her until the day I die”. If I’ve got that at the core, I can do anything”.

I can feel and see how FLETCHER’s music, narrative focus and confidence has grown since her E.P. releases. I think that Girl of My Dreams was one of the best albums of last year. It is one that I feel is quite underrated. This Billboard interview from last year is revealing. Growing up in a conservative area, it would have been hard for an L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artist to express herself. Songwriting was a way of doing that. FLETCHER also writes music for the listener. If the subjects can be quite personal, they are ones that many others can identify with and find strength in:

“But this time around, the focus has changed — while her album still explores the messy breakup dynamics that comprised the content of EPs like You Ruined New York City For Me and Finding Fletcher, Girl of My Dreams places Fletcher squarely in the center of her own narrative. “My writing has always mirrored where I’m at in my life, and the phases that I’m in — and so the track list very intentionally starts with ‘Sting’ and ends with ‘For Cari,'” she says. “I wanted to show what the growth process looks like for me.”

Girl of My Dreams operates as something of a “time capsule” for Fletcher, chronicling two and a half years of self-discovery and therapy (“I have a crush on [my therapist], which I feel like is problematic,” she admits at one point) that resulted in personal revelations that have reshaped the young star’s self-image. “This has been my narrative of growth over the last two years; the pain evolves from nasty heartbreak into some love for yourself.”

While Fletcher emphasizes the fact that healing from pain is “not linear,” the story told on her album is — the first 5 tracks pick up where her much-loved last EP The S(ex) Tapes left off; in the midst of heartbreak, pain and emotional chaos. Early standouts like “Guess We Lied” and “Better Version” map out a path of petty resentment and bitter dismissals.

Those feelings may not be entirely mature, something that Fletcher herself calls out on late album cut “Serial Heartbreaker” when she takes “accountability, saying ‘Fuck, why don’t my relationships work out? It’s because you are codependent and you need to look in the mirror and heal that person so you stop having these cycles of habits,'” as she puts it.

But that’s the point, as she tells it; everyone thinks messed-up thoughts every now and then. She’s just putting those thoughts to good use. “There’s never a recording session where I go, ‘Cool, the next two weeks, we’re writing for the album.’ No, I show up and say, ‘Listen up, I am a hot-ass mess, I just had the most unhinged thought, let’s make it a song,'” she says.

One of those “unhinged thoughts” came in a writing session when, scrolling through Instagram, she found a photo of her ex’s girlfriend wearing one of her vintage t-shirts. After accidentally liking the pic, she decided not only to leave the like, but to forever enshrine the moment in the song “Becky’s So Hot.”

Not only did the steamy single go on to earn Fletcher her first-ever entry on Billboard‘s Hot Alternative Songs chart, but it also opened the floodgates of Queer TikTok. As it turns out, “Becky” happened to be the name of her ex-girlfriend’s (influencer Shannon Beveridge) current partner; the pair made it very clear through a series of posts that they were unhappy with the song, and fans began intense debate over the ethics of Fletcher using Missal’s name in a song about thinking she was hot. “I can’t go on TikTok anymore — my algorithm has just become videos about me, which is so f–king annoying,” she says, chuckling. “Give me anything else aside from ‘Becky’s So Hot’ discourse.”

The singer concedes that making art out of her private life — and by proxy unofficially inviting outside audiences into it — is an active choice she’s made throughout her career, even if she finds herself regretting it. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘God damn it, Cari. Why did you set the precedent of telling everybody your business?'” she says, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling. She adds; “It’s just not that deep — I’m not actually out here trying to f–k anyone’s girlfriend.”

The name “Becky,” aside from being the name of Beveridge’s current girlfriend, carries with it a lot of cultural context that Fletcher is quick to provide. “The name ‘Becky’ is a pop trope that’s been used for decades. It’s ‘Becky with the good hair,‘ or ‘Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt, it’s so big,'” she says. “‘Becky’ is ‘the other woman.’ And the song is about the other woman!”

The singer-songwriter argues that part of her job is writing lyrics that people find their own truth in. It’s part of the reason, she says, why she got into this career in the first place. Growing up in the “conservative, religious town” of Asbury Park, NJ, Fletcher says that after spending years battling mental health, hiding her sexuality and being generally “burdened by my own existence,” she used songwriting as a means of expressing herself to others who might be stuck in a similar situation.

“It was all coming from the understanding of not wanting anyone else to feel so f–king crazy,” she says. “To be able to have resources, or even just a person verbalizing the crazy s–t that we think about, or the phases of our life that we go through; I desperately needed that, and I set out from day one to be that artist.”

But with the release of and subsequent discourse surrounding “Becky’s So Hot,” Fletcher noticed some online commenters shaming her for showing irresponsibility as a role model to other queer women in the world. That characterization of her, she says, is one she rejects.

“I never claimed that; I’m not a role model, I don’t want to be a role model, and I don’t think we should have role models,” she says. “Expectations are the root of suffering — I am not f–kin’ perfect, I make f–k-ups and mistakes, I have never been out here claiming to know what I’m doing, to be doing it correctly”.

In May, Rolling Stone Australia spotlighted FLETCHER. Since 2019, she has been establishing herself as one of the voices of her generation. An artist with a legion of adoring fans, her songwriting is among the strongest out there. She is someone who can be compared with the greats of modern music. I would urge everyone to follow FLETCHER:

“Acknowledging the non-linear nature of healing and self-care, Fletcher credits her fans with helping to keep her grounded when things get too chaotic.

“I feel so lucky that I have cultivated such an amazing connection with my fans and the people who listen to my music,” she says.

“From day one, I’ve always been like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here.’ I’m not pretending to have this all figured out; I very much don’t, I’m just a human being having human experiences. I’m just trying to make sense of those emotions and feelings through art.”

“I feel really lucky that my fans are the first ones to be like, ‘Bitch, take a nap! Drink some water! Do whatever it is that you need to do,’ – that’s the message I really wanna share in return, too. Take care of yourself. That’s the most important thing.”

With an album like Girl Of My Dreams, it’s easy to assume a particular image of FLETCHER; perhaps one that sees her thriving under the spotlight. And the stats don’t lie – she definitely has flourished since the album’s release.

Songs like “Becky’s So Hot”, “Sting” and “Better Version” demonstrate a songwriting range that envelops playfulness, vulnerability and a lean into a supercharged emotional space.

Still, behind the billions of streams, industry acclaim and online adoration, FLETCHER still grapples with existing in such a chronically online world, and with that, figuring out what she wants her place within it to look like.

Since the album’s release, FLETCHER has arrived at some realisations of her own; importantly, that she can revel in the success of her art but in prioritising her own self-care, she isn’t stalling momentum, or letting anyone down. Both success and prioritising yourself can exist at the same time.

“When you spend life on the road, it’s sometimes hard to live life and to have the experiences to write about,” she explains.

“I’ve taken a back seat from social media for a second. It’s so overstimulating, so unhealthy; every time I go on, my anxiety skyrockets through the roof. I used to think I was such a weak, over-sensitive person, but our nervous systems just aren’t cut out for how much information exists; how much is constantly being fed to us about how we should be perceived and appear. What our lives should look like.”

“I’m very much in this era of my life right now, where I’m crafting my life in a way that doesn’t need to be shown or seen all the time. I’m in a really deep overhaul of taking care of myself and what that means, what that looks like”.

Before getting to reviews, this recent NME interview is really important. I think we can all listen to and follow an artist like FLETCHER without realising how difficult it can be. In terms of pressure and the strain of touring. She spoke about the importance of practicing affirmations:

“The singer explained that starting to practice affirmations was the inspiration for her single ‘I Love You Bitch’, which has become a fan favourite at her live shows.

“I was listening to a podcast that was about [learning] how to love yourself in 21 days, and it [used] mirrorwork,” she said. “You had to look at yourself in a mirror and one of the exercises one day was like, ‘Say I love you and then fill in your name’. It was so awkward for me to do and I felt so uncomfortable and then I remember looking in the mirror and being like ‘I love you, bitch,’ and I was like, ‘That feels more like it’s on point’.”

She continued: “I’ve always struggled with pretty intense performance anxiety and before I go on stage I will make eye contact with myself and I will say, ‘You are that bitch. You are that bitch. You are that bitch. You can do anything, you can be anything, and I just say, ‘I love you’.

“When I first started doing that and practicing any sort of affirmations, it feels sort of wrong, it feels really uncomfortable, it feels really self-absorbed. But I think the more that you can grab onto your body, which has been something that I’ve been doing every day, I feel like we so often abandon our physical vessels and talk so mean about them and abuse them.

“The more that you can have gratitude for your body and be like, ‘Whoa, these legs, I was able to walk around today, they got me through the day. No matter what you say about yourself, you’re always coming up with a reason why it could be better and society reinforces that too. We live in a world that’s just constantly telling us that something needs to be different, something needs to look different. That’s just not true.”

Asked when she made more of a conscious effort to practice self-love, Fletcher said: “It was over the pandemic for me, where I went through a period of my life where I didn’t think I wanted to do music anymore and I was second-guessing myself. I just remember having the shift, where I was like, ‘If I can just show up in a way that feels more truthful and honest and bearable for me, then this is something I wanna do and commit to. That’s how it started to come about.

“But I think it’s like a forever journey and a process. You don’t arrive at something overnight and suddenly you’re like, ‘I am everything.’ Just start saying that you are, because you are. Everything you’ve ever needed has already been right here”.

I am going to finish off with some reviews. The Line of Best Fit were among those who provided a positive review for Girl of My Dreams. It is an album that keeps revealing more each time you listen to it. If you have not heard it then make sure that you do now:

“Taylor Swift might have been dubbed the queen of break-up songs, but she’s got nothing on Cari Fletcher. Heartache, healing, clandestine make-ups and complicated feelings have saturated pretty much all her discography to date, and the same broken heart bleeds well into the first half of her Girl Of My Dreams.

The frantic opener “Sting” makes an immediate reference to THE S(EX) TAPES, FLETCHER’s 2020 EP that was made in collaboration with its muse: the ex in question who FLETCHER had chosen to quarantine with. Clearly still a fresh wound, there are references to that relationship throughout the album, including the sorrowful speculation of “Birthday Girl” and messy catharsis of “Becky’s So Hot.” Name-dropping your ex’s new girlfriend so publicly is definitely chaotic, but fits with FLETCHER’s mission to produce “the most honest, raw, and complete representation of the complex and sensitive-ass Pisces that I've always been.”

In its second act, the album looks inward. “I Think I’m Growing?” would have made sense as the album’s finale: short and sweet, set to minimalist production and soaring harmonies. Lyrically, we hear FLETCHER confront the self reflection that presumably came from self-isolation. It’s followed up by the title track, where all the insecurity and flaws she just encountered are replaced by a determined sense of self-love. Its bridge follows the likes of Metallica and Halsey in riffing off the “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” prayer, and leads into a euphoric final chorus that makes for a clear album highlight. “Guess We Lied…” is another standout - a revamped reproduction of “If You’re Gonna Lie” from her 2019 EP, you ruined new york city for me.

In comparison to these hits there are some misses: “Holiday,” “Serial Heartbreaker,” and “I Love You” - though the latter is charming and melodically reminiscent of Charli XCX’s “Gone” - are all at risk of obscurity. However, the actual closing song (aptly titled “For Cari”) is an undeniable triumph, and embodies all that this record set out to achieve. Raising a toast to herself, FLETCHER concludes that nobody’s love can compare to her own”.

I will finish off with a review from CLASH. There is a fantastic mix of introspection and personal investigation. There is also the uplifting and euphoric tracks too. It creates a great blend that shows different side to this phenomenal artist. I wonder what album number two will offer. Take some time out and listen to Girl of My Dreams:

“From having everyone in a chokehold with ‘Undrunk’ in 2019, which catapulted the fast-rising artist into mainstream attention, Fletcher has made her name through anthemic songs that crystalise the sapphic experience. The New Jersey-bred pop sensation, known for her openly honest tracks, has made a massive cultural impact by speaking her truth with total abandon and continues to expand on her fearless candid storytelling throughout her entire discography. By blending tragic heartbreak with bittersweet, metaphoric revenge, the critically acclaimed queer icon has always been drawn to the nuanced, sometimes ugly emotions that people tend to shy away from. It’s that cards-on-the-table approach that sometimes stirs up controversy, but also brings in an audience who loves her authenticity, as she shares her dreams, fears, fantasies and all the fleeting feelings inbetween.

Described as an album that takes “a deeper dive into self-exploration”, Fletcher’s debut album, ‘Girl Of My Dreams’, is a chaotic, unfiltered project that unpacks and tackles insecurities head-on. The songs are built on a high energy, hypnotic sound, including everything from pop-punk to dance-pop and understated folk, that sees her exploring every raw emotion on a fluid, dynamic and supremely satisfying odyssey through all the joy and pain of relationships. It is an intense rollercoaster of supercharged pop but even in it’s painful moments, the record radiates an undeniable hope.

Recalling her softer pop-punk origins, ‘Birthday Girl’ and ‘Better Version’ share heavy-hearted expressions of post-breakup grief whilst lightly attacking electric guitars in hybrid fingerpicking styles. Remaining at a mellow pace throughout, the sorrowful speculation of ‘Birthday Girl’ sees a kaleidoscopic flurry of vocal percussion that opens up the chorus in the most beautiful, angelic way whilst ‘Better Version’, though still angelic, sports a rawer, more emotional tone through Fletcher’s confessional lyrics and stripped back ballad-styled chorus.

Taking on a glorious velocity with a dance-pop beat, ‘Serial Heartbreaker’ finds Fletcher owning up to her imperfections: “Sensitive but not enough. I’m not the best at breaking up. Too soon to rip the band-aid off. I’m a sucker for the f*ck me up.” It carries through ‘Girl Of My Dreams’, an album grounded firmly in the past with the hopes of healing in the present. Fletcher continuously dives into turbulent emotions in cutting-edge pop tracks packed with bracing lyrics and this album is no exception.

Although much of this record emerged from exacting introspection, Fletcher also offers up wildly euphoric tracks such as ‘Guess We Lied’ and ‘My Body Is Bible’ that spotlights her gift for crafting profoundly resonant pop songs with extraordinary specificity. Leading into euphoric choruses that makes for a clear album highlight, ‘Guess We Lied’ walks a fine line between bitterness and heartbreak whilst ‘Her Body Is Bible’ explores the tenderness of a sapphic relationship using religious themes. The subtly sexy track, which takes an r-rated twist to detail intimate interactions, catches the sentiments of escapism and perfectly mirrors the intimate experiences through the confessional build-up and tension pauses alongside the snappy lyricism.

At the end of the day, Fletcher loves being a storyteller. Where people shy away from harder, messier subjects, she sees it as an invitation to lay everything out bare. The catharsis and anxiety existing in that vulnerable space tends to bring an equal measure and closing in on her emotional journey, tracks ‘I Think I’m Growing’, ‘Girl Of My Dreams’, ‘I Love You, Bitch’, and ‘For Cari’ show true self-acceptance and obscurity. The introspective tracks, set to minimalist production and soaring harmonies, lyrically find Fletcher confronting self-reflection and replacing any insecurities with a determined and confident sense of self-love. As a queer woman who has spent plenty of time grappling with the feelings that often come from conservative, religious spaces, it’s refreshing to see her reflect on relationships from various points of her live and share how they’ve informed her own trajectory. It ends the record on an optimistic note, a letter to herself, as ‘For Cari’ is a toast to herself and her story so far showcasing that Fletcher is now, evidently, in a place to happily voice her own self-love.

With its unfiltered look at the most intimate emotional experiences life has to offer, ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ results in Fletcher’s most revealing and revelatory body of work to date. The candid storytelling of loss and trauma, the pain of personal growth, and the power of true self-acceptance opens up to serving soft pop-punk brilliancy in an exhilarating yet hypnotising project. It solidifies her position as more than just a queer artist and, with this self-liberation and self-love manifesto, it is one that embodies all Fletcher set out to achieve.

8/10”.

One of our very best artists, I wanted to spotlight FLETCHER because she is someone who has a big fanbase - even though more people need to know about her. I know that very big things lie ahead for her. The past year has been a bit of a whirlwind for FLETCHER. With Girl of My Dreams under her belt and some tour dates in the U.K. and Ireland later in the year, things are looking very bright. This is an artist that you…