Clairo produced the album alongside Leon Michels with musical contributions from Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, Marco Benevento, and Dave Guy, among others.

[7] Critics praised Sling for Clairo's artistic progression and thematic songwriting that ponders future motherhood, domesticity and the responsibility of becoming a caregiver.

[11][12] In 2023, aside from collaborating with artists like Phoenix and Beabadoobee,[13][14] Clairo also released two charity singles on Bandcamp, "For Now" with all proceeds directed to Everytown for Gun Safety and For The Gworls,[15] and "Lavender" to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders during the Israel–Hamas war.

[21][22] A press release accompanying the announcement of Charm described the album as "a collection of warm, '70s-inspired grooves that move lithely between jazz, psychedelic folk and soul".

[39] A third music video debuted on February 6, 2025 for "Terrapin", directed by Ayo Edebiri and featuring "Weird Al" Yankovic as "Clairo".

[42] Slant Magazine writer Nick Seip described the record's production and instrumentation as "its secret weapon", and favorably compared the voice of Cotrill on the track "Terrapin" to her "early history of singing over lo-fi beats".

[53] Marissa Lorusso, for Pitchfork, also noted the album's resemblance to her earlier work, while sentencing that it doesn't have the "dramatic shift" in the manner of the singer's sophomore record, Sling, nor "Immunity's kinship with bedroom pop", yet a "successful but polite soft-rock outing.

"[4] The Daily Tar Heel's Alexis Clifton highlighted Charm's "whispery jazz, soft rock elements, groovy orchestral motifs and undeniable warmth", and stated that it is essentially a "falling in love" album which "lies in between" of the themes of its predecessors: Immunity's youth and Sling's "multifacetedness of growing old".