As Charli XCX continues to insist that she’s bringing Brat Summer—now three seasons past the summer when it all began—to a close, her performance at Weekend Two of Coachella offered some suggestions as to who might be the reigning queen (or king) of this upcoming summer. While she offered many curveballs both esoteric (Sean Price Williams, who is doing the cinematography on Charli XCX’s next movie, The Moment) and mainstream (Lorde), nowhere to be found was the name “MARINA,” “Marina Diamandis” or “Princess of Power.” Which, to those who have followed the seemingly ever-widening wedge between Charli and MARINA over the years, feels like another pointed dig and/or “oversight.” Even if, in many regards, MARINA was of valuable use to Charli in her early years in terms of schooling her in the ways of what would eventually be called “brat.”
But what concern is that to Charli after the great “that FROOT looks familiar!” snafu of 2016? Why should she take it upon herself to even bother trying to “work it out on the remix” of “Girl, so confusing” (which was initially speculated to be about Diamandis) with MARINA when she would rather invest her time in mending a female friendship with Lorde instead? And though MARINA was quick to take to social media with her praise for the remix (“This is beautiful. Just cried listening to it. It’s so courageous and human to make work about this topic and it’s so healing to listen to it. Congratulations on an iconic album @charli_xcx”), Charli’s response was somewhat drenched in condescension. That reply being, “Aww Marina!! Tumblr girls rise!” Keeping it just “cute” and unemotional enough to be acceptable, but, at the core of things, never publicly acknowledging that ostensible olive branch in a genuine sort of manner. Perhaps because, quite simply, she had been burned one too many times in the social media space by MARINA to attempt “interfacing” with her too deeply through that medium again. Or at least for…the moment.
Even so, to sidestep what is going to be a major music release this summer while mentioning such others as PinkPantheress, Haim, Kali Uchis, Rosalía, Caroline Polachek, Pulp and Addison Rae is an overt knife, to borrow a turn of phrase from Brat. Especially since the latter two are dropping their albums on the very same day as MARINA is: June 6th. A date that adds further heaviness to it all as, last year, Brat was released on June 7th. Surely, Charli XCX—being the patent “culture vulture” that she is—knows that. Yet pointedly chose to ignore the information by not mentioning a “MARINA Summer” in any way, shape or form.
This also despite the fact that MARINA played Coachella this year as well, taking the Main Stage like Charli—albeit on Friday, not Saturday (for “never the twain shall meet”). And yet, her performance during both weekends didn’t gain nearly as much coverage as “Bratchella.” Yet another indication of how the tables have turned on MARINA from the days when Charli was billable as her opener while she was promoting 2012’s Electra Heart on The Lonely Hearts Club Tour. And yes, Electra Heart, it can be argued, is very much MARINA’s version of Brat, wielding the same alter ego concept that Charli took on to become a more caricaturized iteration of her party girl persona. In contrast, MARINA employed the use of a more traditional feminine stereotype—the girly, perfectly-coiffed housewife—and subverted it by, in essence, “Sylvia Plath-ifying” it for the twenty-first century. Yet another way in which MARINA’s “aesthetic” and overall musical themes remain sharply divided from Charli’s. More aligned, instead, with her true Tumblr ride or die, Lana Del Rey.
And, speaking of, maybe MARINA shouldn’t feel too offended by being left off the list. Perhaps it’s actually a compliment that Charli didn’t mention her—just as she didn’t mention some form of Lana Del Rey’s name (e.g., “Lana Summer,” “Lanita Summer” or “Del Rey Summer”) either. Maybe Charli thinks that both women are so big, with their own respective cult followings, that they don’t need any help from her. In general or during her video projections played to the tune of her Coachella set’s closing track, “I Love It.” Then again, if that were really the case, why mention Lorde? A pop star who has more than matched or even eclipsed both Del Rey and Diamandis at various points in her career. She certainly doesn’t need any “free advertising/advocation” from Charli at this point.
But maybe Charli didn’t want to pick the “wrong side” in the long-standing Del Rey/Lorde beef, which is worthy of its own need to be worked out on a remix. Especially after Lorde famously said of Del Rey’s music, “I think a lot of women in this industry maybe aren’t doing so well for the girls. I’ve read interviews where certain big female stars are like, ‘I’m not a feminist.’ I’m like, ‘That’s not what it’s about.’ She’s great, but I listened to that Lana Del Rey record and the whole time I was just thinking it’s so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to, you know: ‘I’m nothing without you.’ This sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff. That’s not a good thing for young girls, even young people, to hear.”
Regardless of Lorde’s previous statements, however, that didn’t stop Charli from name-checking Del Rey on, of all Brat songs, “Mean girls,” singing about a certain kind of “toxic female” (just another term for “mean girl”), “All coquettish in the pictures, with the flash on/Worships Lana Del Rey in her AirPods, yeah.” So, in a way, not entirely flattering for Del Rey. At least in terms of the type of listener she attracts. Which is something Lorde was commenting on “back in the day.” And yet, being discussed and dissected—however unflatteringly—is surely a testament to the Oscar Wilde adage, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Something MARINA has experienced more egregiously than Del Rey when it comes to whose name Charli will (or rather, will not) let out of her mouth…or emblazon across a giant screen behind her.
[…] And so, while dressed in nothing more than her bra and underwear, XCX ends up in front of a billboard of her own image, prostrating herself before it. Intercut scenes then show XCX back in the house at night alone, writhing around on the floor as silver confetti falls from the ceiling and a strobe light gives the look an even more depressing rather than “fun” vibe. Indeed, these flashes add an underlying message to the video. One that suggests XCX is asking: what if I end up all alone at this party? The seemingly nonstop party that is her Brat era. For Charli has made no secret about her fear of staying too long at said party, of becoming “overexposed.” Even while stating that she’s interested in the “tension” of lingering past the moment when her own is supposed to be up. When she’s supposed to make way for someone else’s summer (like Lorde’s or Haim’s or Addison Rae’s—all names she emblazoned on the screen behind her during her Coachella set…though not MARINA’s o…). […]