In a music climate that thrives on keeping listeners hooked by constantly releasing new singles, Charli XCX, like Lana Del Rey with Norman Fucking Rockwell, has doled out a hefty number of songs from Charli already. Which, alas, more than somewhat detracts from the “novelty” of hearing “Gone,” “Cross You Out,” “1999,” “Warm,” “Blame It On Your Love” and “February 2017” amid the other tracks not previously released. Yet, that little “nitpick” aside (one that applies to most new albums au présent), the average listener might tend to notice something that could be a problem for another artist–non-cohesion–seems to work only to XCX’s advantage.
Starting with “Next Level Charli,” the sonic patchwork of the record is established within the span of one song, in large thanks to producer A.G. Cook. A far cry from the straightforward bubblegum pop of her 2013 debut, True Romance, Charli aims to show just how “next level,” indeed, she has become. Particularly in her deft collaborations already well-established on mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2, both sort of amuse-bouches for the collab-heavy Charli. Still, it seems deliberate that she would choose to open the album with a song on which she stands alone, singing, “Go forever and ever and bounce/Never sleep.” It’s clear she knows her audience. One that she somewhat ironically calls her “angels,” a somewhat painful reference for the day she chose to release her album, amid the mitigating fanfare surrounding Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey’s single for the Charlie’s Angels Soundtrack, “Don’t Call Me Angel.”
Nonetheless, being attuned to her fanbase, she sustains the danceability with “Gone” featuring Christine and the Queens as she, possibly alluding to L.A. clientele, sings, “I feel so unstable, fucking hate these people/How they making me feel lately/They making loathe/They making me loathe.” XCX even goes on to start speaking in French to air out this frustration. Because there’s nothing more condescending to do to someone you hate. The playfulness of “Gone” gives way to the dramatic “Cross You Out” featuring Sky Ferreira. Discussing the painful process of removing someone from your life you thought you would never be capable of excommunicating, Charli purges, “Century of tears, sadness was my only smile/So I fell apart, but you’re gone and I’m doing fine.” Ferreira complements the sentiment with the poetic lines, “Melt me down one piece at a time/I seal these eyes wide shut, I wasn’t mesmerized, no.” Charli’s listeners, on the other hand, will undeniably still be mesmerized by “1999” (featuring Troye Sivan), the first single released from the record back in 2018. Even if she and Sivan aren’t exactly in a credible age bracket to be so “lusty” for this particular year, especially when it conflates all pop culture elements of the 90s into the video.
Drenched in further A.G. Cook tones, “Click” (also co-produced by Dylan Brady and Umru), refers not only to the clique of Charli, Kim Petras and TOMM¥ €A$H, but also the click of a pic, a glass and a cash register–all extremely instrumental in securing the good times of any clique. For, as €A$H phrases it, “If no pay, I won’t go/Don’t fuck with a broke ho.” Luckily for him, Charli and Kim can subsidize if necessary. The gentler, more dulcet sounds of “Warm” are in large part thanks to the stylings of HAIM. Jumping on the track to iterate Charli’s frustration over being in the midst of unrequited love, HAIM sweetly croons, “Tell me you feel the same/I wish it was more than surface/I wish I could feel nothing.” Incidentally, in Charli’s lifestyle of drinking and going to the club to numb out, she ends up feeling something for someone on the dance floor–emotions easily intermixed and confused with the high of alcohol.
“Thoughts,” one of the rare tracks not released ahead of the album, is accordingly called as such because, as Charli stated, “It’s just a spiral of thoughts.” And there’s arguably no worse time to have those than while driving around Hollywood, where she sets the stage of the song’s non-narrative. Yet it’s one that can particularly plague the part-time Angeleno as they, like Charli, ask themselves, “Did I lose it all?/Did I fuck it up?/Are my friends really friends now or are they far gone?” They certainly aren’t if one is basing their assessment on the number of people who join her on this album, including Lizzo, who gives her cheeky contribution to “Blame It On Your Love.” Reworked from Pop 2’s “Track 10,” the song is an exploration of the ways we “fuck it up” for ourselves via self-sabotage when love is involved.
The thread of this theme continues on “White Mercedes” (not to be confused with Lana Del Rey’s “White Mustang”), one of the most standout songs for its ballad qualities (by Charli standards anyway). As it should have, for Charli forlornly admits, “Don’t say you love me ‘cause I can’t say it back…/You know I’ve got a suit of armor on/You’ll never see me cry.” Almost Lily Allen-like in lyrical content that cops to being a cad of a female, Charli further adds, “Hate myself, I really love you/Hurting you feels like I’m hurting as well/All I know is I don’t deserve you.”
Picking the tempo up again slightly on “Silver Cross,” Charli offers another rare instance on the record of performing alone. Rightly so, for it’s a song about all-consuming passion of the most detrimental variety. The kind that gets falsely romanticized thanks to the likes of Romeo and Juliet, with Charli mirroring that level of devotion as she insists, “If your eyes are sad it/It makes me sad too/You got me so overprotective, it’s true/Feel like I would jump off buildings for you/It’s okay, I’ll watch you cry all night/I promise I won’t let you go.” It doesn’t exactly sound too healthy.
So unhealthy, in fact, that it likely drove the object of her affection away, as seemingly detailed on the track that follows, “I Don’t Wanna Know.” Lamenting, “I don’t wanna know what you’ve done, why you left/I know I’m losing you, so come on, tell the truth.” Her ballad-like mourning on the song would make any pop star from the 80s proud.
Persisting with the dreamy motif that began on “White Mercedes,” “Official” proves that Taylor Swift isn’t the only one who can write giddily about new love. Or at least old love repackaged again, which, in this case, refers to her on-again boyfriend, Huck Kwong. Again echoing shades of Lily Allen (specifically “Chinese” and “Who’d Have Known”), Charli posits, “All of the dreams that you put in my head/I’m still asleep but there’s breakfast in bed/These are the things that could make us official.” The maudlin overtones of “Official” abruptly transition once more to Charli’s naughtier side on “Shake It.” Though that naughtiness likely stems from being joined by collaborators like Big Freedia, cupcakKe, Brooke Candy and Pablo Vittar. Otherwise known as a gay man’s wet dream. And while each voice provides their own distinct lyrics, it is Big Freedia who basks most memorably in the spotlight as she declares, “I don’t shake like anything/I shake like myself/All this pussy on a pedestal, put it on a shelf.”
Bringing up an arcane date that pertains to her relationship with Kwong, “February 2017” is her unbridled (and rather specific) apology to him as she wishes, “Hope you can forgive the things I’ve done”–one of them apparently involving Grammy night in February of, you guessed it, 2017.
Not one to cease with the mentioning of certain years, Charli travels to the future instead of the past (once again with Troye Sivan) for the final track, “2099.” Yet there’s something still very much tied to the Earth of now as the duo sings, “I’m Pluto, Neptune, pull up, roll up/Future, oh.” Alas, there isn’t going to be much of a future in 2099 thanks to climate change (formerly known as global warming before Dick Cheney enlisted a focus group to change how that icky term sounded)–so maybe that’s why they’re talking about outer space? It will be the only place left to turn.
In any case, it’s nice to listen to Charli during what’s left of the future–for despite being primarily produced by A.G. Cook, its all over the map sound is a pretty strong indication of le monde en ce moment.
