Rae Charlea - ‘He’s Just A Boy’ Review: Pixie dust infused indie rock, with a sparkling future ahead

10 Jun

Her self-described ‘pixie dust infused indie rock’ sound is blissful, gorgeous and simply a joy to listen to, particularly on a track like He’s Just A Boy.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

On 6th June 2024, Rae Charlea (pronounced kar-lee-ah) released her second single of the year He’s Just A Boy. Inspired by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender and Holly Humberstone, she’s building a dreamy world of her own.

Her self-described ‘pixie dust infused indie rock’ sound is blissful, gorgeous and simply a joy to listen to, particularly on a track like He’s Just A Boy. While Rae’s influences are listed as indie rock royalty, we hear a lot of 80s in her efforts. With a riff reminiscent of Boys Don’t Cry, the tune tells the story of becoming infatuated with someone, and it turns out they don’t feel the same way.

“I didn’t want to write a sappy breakup song about the situation because our relationship never made it out of the DMs so I wrote a song taking the p**s out of myself for madly obsessing over this guy who was not thinking about me at all” explains Rae when discussing the single.

For fans of soft indie pop, you’re in for a real treat. You can already hear it being blasted on a sunny day, after one too many Red Stripes. The ‘clap-focused’ drumbeat, Dire Straits guitar work and Clairo-esque vocals, we can’t get enough. It feels good to play this again and again, whatever mood you may find yourself in.

Rae continues: “My all-time celebrity crush is the Australian Formula 1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo, and I think he is incredibly gorgeous, so I decided to name-drop him in the pre-chorus to compare the guy I was crushing on with Ricciardo; because there is really no contest as Ricciardo will win that one every time. I’ve found that this line gets a lot of laughs at Australian shows and fuels my delusional state in this song where I am pretending that I have a chance with Ricciardo”

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Sink your teeth into this sweet, blissful and sparkling indie bop. Her joyful style is injecting Australian magic into our playlists as we speak. The closest you’ll ever get to floating is with vocals this dreamy.

Now, it’s your turn. Give it a spin, and tell us what you think on Insta or X.