​​Artist Chloe Moriondo brings back yearning with their newest breakup single “shoreline.”

Debuting Jan. 14, “shoreline” is a four-minute and four-second long track that blurs genre lines between hyperpop, indie and bedroom pop.

The single marks the artist’s first release of 2025 and exhibits a clear blend of Moriondo’s past projects.

Before their rise to mainstream fame, the artist was best known on YouTube for posting covers of popular music played on ukulele.

At 16, the artist released their first album “Rabbit Hearted.” in 2018 which carried the soft, gentle, folky sounds of the ukulele and combined them with raw, earnest and original lyrics.

Their next two albums “Blood Bunny,” released in 2021, and “Suckerpunch,” released in 2022, introduced electronic beats, auto-tuned vocals and sardonic lyricism that rebranded Moriondo’s sweet, innocent image with more mature themes like lust, revenge and violence.

Their work has always been somewhat autobiographical, growing and developing alongside the artist to match the changes in their life.

“shoreline” is an example of this as it marries both the lovestruck, naive quality of their pre-teen years with the cynical, cheeky tone of their 20s.

Inspired by the artist’s first big breakup, the single hits listeners with a wave of conflicted feelings over a past lover.

Moriondo sings, “I miss you, I’m bitter, but not all the time / And you know I’m no quitter / So I will love you ‘til I die.”

Stranded on the “shoreline” but still committed, Moriondo works through that murky space between being in love and getting over it when receiving mixed signals.

With lyrics like “You’re still so mean and sweet at the same time” and “You can say that you’re always there / but I can’t find you anywhere,” the song sums up what it’s like to get heartbroken by someone who wants to keep you on the hook.

In a world full of insincere promises that “we can still be friends” to wishy-washy excuses like “it’s not you, it’s me,” Moriondo speaks to listeners struggling to move on after a breakup.

Professing “Didn’t wanna learn without you / But I did because I had to,” they make it clear that even though it’s hard to keep growing after losing someone significant, you must keep pushing forward.

This optimistic turn breaks through the song as a glimmer of hope on the horizon but doesn’t dive much deeper, returning to the chorus and pre-chorus’s more melancholic feel which keeps Moriondo “Washed up and waiting at high tide.”

The entire song is riddled with ocean-related language and imagery. 

On Instagram, Moriondo’s account @chloemoriondo has undergone a complete sea-themed makeover to match with posts including seashells, “shoreline” promotionals and mermaid-inspired wet looks.

The rebrand has fans talking about a possible new album, an idea sparked by Moriondo’s Instagram caption, “ps i hope you’ve been loving shoreline .. more soon xoxo.”

While “shoreline” is strong in its message and illustrates the best of Moriondo’s sound and style, the same cannot be said of its music video.

The “shoreline” music video, or “Official Visualizer” as it’s titled, exposes some of the song’s weaknesses, showcasing its surprising lack of narrative depth and low-quality aesthetic.

The video is simple and surface-level. It shows Moriondo wandering outside before breaking into a run toward the shoreline where they lie, splashing in the shallow water all while lip-syncing.

When compared to hits like “I Eat Boys” or “Fruity” with imaginative music videos that feel almost like professional short films, the “shoreline” video feels amateur and underdeveloped.

While Moriondo is no stranger to non-narrative, aesthetic-based music videos like those for “Hell Hounds” or “nice pup,” “shoreline’s” lack of story, heavy blue overlay and camcorder-esque glitch effects simply don’t measure up to the creative and experimental style of their previous work.

Despite the flop of its music video, “shoreline” is a promising single that has prompted the beginning of a new era for the artist’s music.