Single reviewsThe Other Side Reviews

Carla Stark – Naïve (2020)

Coming to the realisation that you are naïve is never pleasant, but know that you are not alone in this. After a difficult and painful year, Carla Stark has come to this conclusion and lays it all out in her aptly titled single ‘Naïve’. The song talks about the dilemma she faced and how you can be torn between wanting to keep some innocence and avoiding being an easy target for bad people.

While Stark has been surrounded by music all her life, she spent time pursuing a career in business. Feeling like she didn’t belong, she put her tendrils out and was drawn back to music and theatre. Since then, she has used her personal experiences as a basis for her music.



‘Naïve’ sets a tone of innocence with the light notes that twinkle in the opening. From the depths below them, shuffling beats make their way into your ears. These two lines intertwine for a light swirling melody that twirls a sense of innocence with a realisation of the bad in the world. It is a very lush melody with a lot of depth and a few layers that creep along your senses. As the song progresses, the innocent tones give way to a middle ground but, they do come in an out in a gentle battle for dominance.

Stark’s dulcet tones provide an emotive delivery of the poetic lyrics of the track. At times, her voice is filled with the pain of realising your own naivety. This is played against a yearning to retain some innocence. As she fills you with these emotions, the lyrics work through realising that you are naïve and believe what people say. The lyrics then take you through the battle played out in her performance where you want to be more worldly while retaining some innocence.



The battle of this single is captured through the artistry of the official music video. The video uses a great light transition to move from naivety to awareness. When the video starts, Stark is in dark lighting as she moves through a building. As it progresses, she moves into more light as she becomes aware of her own naivety and accepts that she needs to be less naive. The depths of the single are wonderfully portrayed in the video in a subtle manner while being easy on the eyes.

Carla Stark acknowledges her own naivety while trying to avoid becoming jaded in the smooth tones of ‘Naïve’. The swirling melody of the single twirls with her emotive vocals for a journey away from innocence and the battle to retain some naivety. The official music video captures this movement through subtle light changes while being mesmerizingly artful.

Find out more about Carla Stark on her website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.

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