Ah great! A song about the act of dying. Just what you need on your third hospital appointment in a week. And it’s not just dying in a metaphorical sense of the word either. It is lying on a death bed flatlining and being pumped full of pain killers. My uncle once sang that life was killing him and he’d surely enjoy the irony here if he was still around.
You know the most terrifying song ever is Metallica’s “One” – a story of a paralyzed soldier in a coma, alive but unable to communicate with the world, being stuck on the verge between life and death. It is the very idea of absolute hell for anyone claustrophobic. And here comes a strong contender to Metallica in the form of Clara Kay with her anthemic vivisection of how we all will feel at the end of our lives. Definitely right up my alley. Thanks Clara!
Now, don’t get any wrong impressions here. Under no circumstances, should you dismiss “Afterlife” as something too scary or too traumatic to listen to. You’d be depriving yourself of one of the most beautiful and haunting songs that came out in 2026 so far.
At the risk of repeating myself, I consider Clara Kay to be a prolific songwriter on par with Kevin Griffiths of Better Than Ezra. Take the last thirty years of the American college rock circuit and show me a person who can inspire you, uplift you, gut you or depress you more efficiently than the leader of the Nola quartet. I mean if you don’t feel anything while listening to “A Lifetime”, then you don’t have a soul and no pulse. If you don’t feel anger at the stories described in “King of New Orleans” and “Rosalea” then you are a walking corpse. Nothing will save you.
Clara Kay is cut from the same cloth as Kevin Griffiths. Her mastery lies not in opaque, complex metaphors but from the use of ordinary language, simple sentences and humane stories and molding them into unique forms of musical poetry. It’s funny how often Clara’s lyrics remind me of Stanisław Barańczak, polish poet and university scholar, whose mission was to speak to readers not from library pedestals but reaching out to them on the same, equal level.
Years ago, there was another female singer/songwriter, like Clara Kay. She even covered Better Than Ezra’s song “Breathless” for all its worth. She possessed the same quality of observation and crafted songs from real life. She made a fortune out of it. You may have guessed correctly if you said Taylor Swift. Clara Kay is not yet that famous or rich and I doubt she writes her music for comparisons, algorithms for easy consumption. Maybe that’s why she does not appear on your TikTok. She creates her songs out of the need to connect to other humans.And this is why she’s here on Indieterria. We believe it’s worth digging through tons of music to find those artists worthy of your time.
Once you discover Clara and her art – you realize you received something that has more than a monetary value. Having songs to relate to in times of superficial bullshit is akin to having a lifeline when you are drowning. Something something about records that save your life as Morrissey once said. And maybe that is a reason I prefer Clara Kay over Taylor Swift. The recent albums of the superstar tell me nothing about my life while Clara’s newest single is a companion on a hospital wait.
“Afterlife” was released on the10th of April 2026. It was written and produced in tandem with Preston Lydotes and Makena Tate Shlens, with additional engineering input by Grace Ritter. Preston played guitar, as well as bass and provided backing vocals. Clara invited her backing band too: Noshi Curry (violin), Milo Darlington (viola), Malachi B (cello) and Griffin DiNardo (drums), all fellow graduates of Berklee College of Music.
The song is a mellow, almost melancholic ballad sitting on the crossroads of pop sensibilities on one side and Americana/College rock bite on the other. It feels almost timid in the beginning, but then comes the chorus and then you realize what a powerful voice resides inside Clara Kay. She is not just another sad girl singing broody pop tunes for the misunderstood, She is a brand new face who will set up music trends in the coming years.
I have never understood the phenomenon of Phoebe Bridges who has always seemed artificial to me or rather dishonest as a performer. I can fully get behind Clara, and I hope you will too.
“Afterlife” is bleak and forces you to face the unavoidable. The cliche as far as this sentence goes but I rather listen to a song about dying when waiting for test results than have a chirpy song about the idiot fronting The 1975. Please don’t think I am sitting here at Leighton hospital with a cancer diagnosis or something equally bad. I merely may be going blind in one eye. I’m slowly rotting and coming undone. Nothing to worry about. I tend to write many more reviews, even if I had to do it with an eye patch on.
But it’s your eye today and your back tomorrow and before you blink, it will be your time to go to the afterlife.
Clara Kay online:
https://www.instagram.com/cclarakayy
https://www.youtube.com/@cclarakayy
https://www.tiktok.com/@cclarakayy
https://soundcloud.com/claire-hudson-229070438
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GocIu4l4QLpHUsds0jDiX
Malicia Dabrowicz
