Almost two years have passed since Chlöe made her solo debut with the unabashedly fun “Have Mercy.” Now, the older half of Chloe x Halle is prepping her debut album, In Pieces, for a March 2022 release — and none of the four songs she has released as a soloist are set to appear on the record’s tracklist.

With a string of singles that include “Treat Me,” “Surprise,” and the Latto-assisted “For the Night,” Chlöe has offered a range of pop&B tracks that have, in turn, soundtracked her journey of growing into herself and her (public) sexuality on a global stage. All this is to say that people have not been the kindest to Chlöe, nor have they been the most understanding. Whether or not this narrative directly influenced “Pray It Away,” the lead single from In Pieces, the song’s soundscape alludes to that arc.

Released last Friday (Jan. 27), “Pray It Away” finds Chlöe turning to God to overcome the temptation to exact revenge on an ex that has wronged her. She sits in her lower register for the majority of the track, and it’s a smart choice. Her smoky tone conveys the struggle between giving in to destructive tendencies and seeking maturity and grace through prayer. The song’s lyrics — “And when I get angry, the gun is off safety / You know I'm not perfect, I'm no Virgin Mary” — provide her with ample space to explore the nuances of her voice’s emotive qualities. There's bitterness, anger, turmoil, desperation, and hope all wrapped into a soothing blend of her own layered background vocals and a backing choir.

Implementing a backing choir instead of solely relying on her own stacks allows for different textures to color the song’s lyrics. In addition, the choir helps lift the production’s gospel influences from pastiche to something a bit more genuine. Between the twinkling piano, backing choir, and pounding drums, Chlöe effectively marries traditional gospel music tropes with a hip-hop-inflected R&B soundscape that’s more closely aligned with the current state of the genre. In fact, the interplay of gospel and R&B on "Pray It Away,” and the tension between the sacred and the secular in the lyrics (she literally opens with “fuck nigga” and ends with “take it to church”), plays well against how Chlöe’s solo evolution has, by and large, been interpreted as a good-girl-gone-bad arc in the court of public opinion.

Does her cussing still feel a bit forced? Well, yes, but it does add to the song’s charm, and, more importantly, its overarching narrative. The pacing of “Pray It Away” is also commendable, the song steadily builds into its maximalism, so that listeners aren’t immediately overwhelmed by its seemingly disparate influences. Easily her strongest single to date, “Pray It Away” also implies a much more intriguing direction for Chlöe’s debut album than anything her previous singles offered.

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Score: 72