Princess Chelsea’s “Growing Older” is the doom ballad that maturity deserves

Thumbnail photo by Adam Custins

On her fourth solo album The Loneliest Girl, Princess Chelsea emerges as a Nancy Sinatra for the Shazam era – her voice, warm as a dimming flashbulb, spreads prestige over music that infuses genres from pop to house. Take "Growing Older," for example, a song that begins as a piano ballad and blooms into a storm of guitar distortion. Its music video, premiering today on The FADER, is a collage of home movies from the New Zealand artist's childhood, adding extra poignance to a song about coming to terms with the passage of time.

"All of these shots I've included are particularly special moments with my grandparents, family and of course, my sister who is two years younger," Princess Chelsea told The FADER in an email. "It features my first instrument, a Yamaha keytar, which was left behind in a house we moved into when I was a kid. Also pictured are holidays at theme parks that capture the excitement but also frustration of being a teenager and feeling isolated. Sometimes you can feel trapped like the Orca's at Seaworld but then excited to be riding the Wipeout!"

Watch the video for "Growing Older" above and listen to The Loneliest Girl here.