Proving once again that she knows how to do “pairings” far beyond wine and cheese, Charli XCX continues to show her coupling prowess with the B-side to “Camera,” “If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?” Following the B-sides that included “I Keep Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night” (the foil to “Rock Music”) and “Playboy Bunny” (the foil to “SS26”), “If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?” is arguably the most “rock”-oriented ditty to emerge thus far (further underlining her intense need to run as far away as possible from the “Brat sound” for this era). And, even more than the others, it provides the perfect thematic complement to its A-side.
Indeed, “If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?” is a natural (and almost guilt-ridden) response to the contemplation of abandoning music that Charli XCX goes through on “Camera.” A song during which she explores her newfound “addiction” to being in front of the camera in an entirely different way (that is, a way that’s not at all like what it means to be in a music video). One that prompts her to declare, “It makes me wanna throw my life away/All the music, all the people/Not a single kiss goodbye.”
A weighty revelation, to be sure—seeing as how XCX’s entire life has been structured around music, starting from when she was barely fourteen and going to warehouse raves to play what she would retroactively refer to as her “fucking terrible MySpace music.” But if it was so terrible, maybe the club promoter running the raves wouldn’t have asked her to come out and perform.
In any case, the point is that a life ruled by music—whether listening to, studying, performing or making it—was the core of XCX’s existence for so long that to suddenly feel so inspired by a new medium was not only jarring, but invigorating. Particularly after her chaotic experience with Brat in the summer of 2024, when the pressure was on her as never before mainly because the spotlight was on her as never before (this feeling succinctly captured in The Moment).
To the extent that she could no longer tweet something cheeky and arbitrary like, “kamala IS brat” without all the venomous pundits of the right coming for her. Whereas, in the past, people of that ilk wouldn’t have paid attention to anything she said or did at all. But because of her increased visibility that summer—at a level that was even higher than her “Boom Clap” and “Fancy” period—XCX realized that “being herself” wasn’t quite so liberating anymore. Being someone else, on the other hand…
And so it was that her acting career was born the same summer, prompting the additional “Camera” ruminations, “‘Cause that look, it’s a bullet/It makes me question what I’m doing/Do I wanna make music? Am I being fucking stupid/If I try to be a girl on the screen when I’m turning thirty-four?” But the most important question of all is the one repeated on “If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?” (that question, of course, built into the title). And it’s one she keeps asking repeatedly throughout the song, a raucous, guitar riff-laden number (produced, as usual by A. G. Cook and Finn Keane) that barely clocks in at just over two minutes. During which time she’s never able to actually provide an answer to that earnest and somewhat panicked query.
However, in the strobing accompanying performance video (filmed in black and white [naturally] and taken from her “pop-up” show at London’s Scala on July 14th), seeing XCX’s strangely ethereal movements as she vibes to this particular track answers the question without words: you can’t actually take away the music from her—because it’s in her. The choppy, flashes-to-different-scenes-and-moments style of the video not only captures the effect Charli has on the audience, but the effect that music itself has on her. Especially when it comes to performing her own.
And when the beat drops around the twenty-five second mark (with the warped sound of her voice ramping up as she repeats the same phrase in new, vocally-manipulated forms), watching her “give herself” to the crowd is still further assurance that there is no taking the music away from Charli. No matter what. And no matter what medium she’s alternating between. This B-side is just one more example of XCX reiterating that to her long-time music fans, the ones who fear she might pivot entirely away from “the craft” that made her famous. Yet, clearly, she’s capable of multitasking without sacrificing quality for quantity. In other words, she’s that rare breed (sort of like J. Lo) who can make music and movies without having to choose, or sacrifice one form of expression for the sake of the other. Well, at least for now…
Buy The Brat of Pop (Volume 1) here.
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