There’s a confident musical swagger from the first few emotional notes of Claire Morales’ new single “Champion” that reminds ears of Cat Power at her most vivacious. “Champion” appears on Morales’ self-released upcoming album, Lost in the Desert, due out August 19th and charts a solitary, female journey through the sands—told both as a full-length album and a graphic novella. Lost in the Desert draws from real-life stories and embellished folklore, capturing the allure and danger, the beauty and dread, the snares and detours that arise on the road to self-discovery.
The album’s tone is constantly in motion—bursting with radiant pop one moment, dipping into eerie psychedelic textures the next, roaring with rock energy, then retreating into hushed folk reflection. It’s a dynamic, shape-shifting work that embraces surprise at every turn. Morales and her band push the boundaries of genre, following the emotional needs of each track rather than a strict formula. Much of it was recorded live to preserve the immediacy and grit of the moment. Produced by Morales and lead guitarist Alex Hastings in their hometown of Denton, TX, the album also features a close-knit crew of friends and respected local musicians—imbuing the project with a palpable sense of community and care.
Glide is premiering the boisterous “Champion” that, as Morales explains, “has come to fruition after years of confronting life’s most dire obstacles.“
“Champion” was written during a time when my life was exploding. I had spent many years sidestepping confrontation (hello, avoidant tendencies), and, surprise, surprise, that led to a lot of problems in my personal life. Everything came to a head when I was releasing my last album. I learned then that putting music out into the world is an invitation for change, chaos even. All the things I was afraid to see, all the uncomfortable truths, all the ways I needed to evolve, it all came flooding in and I was completely overtaken by the shame and guilt and heaviness of it all. It brought about a lot of necessary growth and progress but damn if it wasn’t brutal and unpleasant!
A big takeaway for me from that experience was the importance of speaking your mind, even and maybe especially when it’s not what people want to hear. This song is about embracing conflict, and making the music video was almost a kind of exposure therapy for me. Throughout the single shot, I’m fighting with the camera, lashing out, screaming, crying, everything that feels too scary to do in the moment. It’s funny because in the lyrics I’m almost fighting about fighting, fighting about how useless fighting is. A simple argument used to feel so monumental to me, and it’s almost poking fun at that notion. High drama about a little conflict. I imagine the words of the song almost as the kind of hypothetical argument you would have with yourself while driving alone in your car. It sounds good, but only because no one is there to actually debate you on any of it!
