"Scared" - Lara Simonot |Review

There's something brutally honest about the way Lara Simonot opens "Scared" – her voice dry and unvarnished, like she's talking to herself in the bathroom mirror after crying. It's the sound of someone who's done with pretty packaging around ugly truths, and that rawness immediately pulls you into her world.

The track starts as sparse piano balladry, but this isn't your typical heartbreak song structure. Those spaces between the keys feel intentional, like pauses in a conversation where you're deciding whether to say the thing that will change everything. Simonot uses that emptiness as effectively as she uses sound, creating room for all the messy thoughts that come with untangling yourself from someone toxic.

What makes "Scared" special is how it builds from that intimate vulnerability into something that feels like collective rage. The production gradually layers in elements that mirror the psychological journey from isolation to empowerment. By the time it hits its stride, you can absolutely picture screaming along in your car – windows down, catharsis at full volume.

Simonot's vocal performance walks this perfect line between fragile and fierce. She never abandons the vulnerability that makes the song hit so hard, but she refuses to stay stuck there either. There's something specifically feminine about this kind of anger – not the explosive kind, but the slow-burn realization that you've been giving your empathy to people who see it as weakness.

The track sits comfortably next to Olivia

Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams in the contemporary heartbreak canon, but Simonot brings her own edge to the conversation. "Scared" doesn't just process the aftermath of dating someone who can't match your emotional energy – it transforms that exhaustion into something that feels like reclaimed power.

This is alt-pop that understands how healing actually works: messy, non-linear, and requiring both solitude and the occasional primal scream.