Charli XCX has decided to go out with one final blaze of glory for the last album she will release under mega-label Atlantic Records. And what better name for such a project than Crash? The title track for which Charli describes as: “…if you could bottle the album into one song, this is it.” Complete with the “extremely 80s” sound and “crazy Janet-esque stabs.” In other words, Charli is choosing to remain with her “experimental” pop brand (which, in the 80s, was just called normal pop), but this time around, she’s using every publicity resource available that the label can provide to prove that it’s never really about content, so much as marketing. What’s more, it’s a form of “performance art” she’s playing with via this approach to “conventional pop stardom.”
But sadly, conventional pop stardom must now coincide with TikTok-tailored virality (though one is still convinced that app could eventually go the way of Snapchat in terms of relevance). And, make no mistake, Charli loves TikTok. Thus, there’s a method to her sampling madness on the tracks “Beg For You” and “Used to Know Me,” the former sampling September’s “Cry For You” and the latter sampling Robin S’ “Show Me Love.” The point being “to cultivate a sense of inbuilt familiarity,” as The Guardian phrases it, that will make listeners respond to the music on some kind of primordial pop level. Recognizing something in the songs that makes them gravitate toward the music inexplicably. Some might liken that very much to the plot of 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats.
In the same previously-referenced article from The Guardian that cites her “evil plan” for how to influence listeners’ favor, Charli comments on the trend of “authenticity,” itself an artifice because what’s presented on social media can never actually be authentic. Nonetheless, there remains this push on the part of audiences wanting to see their favorite pop stars as “real.” So it is that Charli comments, “I’ve already been authentic for a very long time and I’m interested in the opposite of that, to take songs that have been written for me, to play into this hypersexualised character. I’m just interested in doing what is not really wanted right now, which is probably my flaw.” How very Madonna. The ultimate Pop Star Blueprint who somehow did it her way. Interestingly, Charli mentioned during another promo interview with Rolling Stone that, “I actually watched Truth or Dare the other week and that’s, like, the best tour documentary ever. So, um, that sort of got me really excited to be a diva on the road…in the best way.”
With regard to Madonna, Charli seems to be desperately seeking some overlap with that OG pop star template of greatness. One that prided itself on the majesty of artifice. And no one knew how to better manufacture the perfect blend of pop star pretense with ironic humor than Madonna (particularly in her Truth or Dare era). Who else would joke, “What’s the difference between a pop star and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist.” This said in her “follow-up” to Truth or Dare, I’m Going to Tell You a Secret. Of course, she’ll never fully reveal the secret of her success is unglamorous blood, sweat and tears (even her forthcoming biopic will have to glamorize that). These are not the aspects of glossy fame fans really want to see. Even when they think that’s what they’re seeing with the new “authenticity” being brought about by celebrities’ socials.
Of course, with Charli announcing that she’s “playing the game” this time around, it sort of negates what playing the game entails… in other words, first rule of The Game is: you do not talk about The Game. It detracts from the illusions people still want to believe in and to be carefully curated for them. Which is why it will be intriguing to see if Charli’s meta approach to pop stardom will be appreciated enough to achieve her ostensible end game of having a hit album in the Top 10 (news flash: it did work as of the album’s release weekend).
The record’s opener, “Crash,” refers to this intent of hers to go out with an explosive end for Atlantic, as well as being an allusion to her previously car-filled lyrics, including “I Love It” (“I crashed my car into the bridge, I watched, I let it burn”), “Vroom Vroom” and “White Mercedes.” The meta-ness of the project even shines through in the fact that Charli’s first record for Atlantic, True Romance, was also named after a movie. Even if Crash is a book before it’s a film. And what J. G. Ballard wanted to say with it is that we’re all tied to and manipulated by the machine. Charli is at last fully embracing that when she says, “I’m about to crash into the water, gonna take you with me/I’m high voltage, self-destructive, end it all so legendary.”
This segues fittingly into “New Shapes,” a song title that makes sense after crashing into something and presumably getting disfigured. Or “refigured,” depending on one’s perspective. Featuring fellow “unconventional” pop artists Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens, Charli and her sistren make “Don’t Call Me Angel” seem like trash as they show how a trio-based single is done. And this one is sure to remind anyone expecting something “traditional” from Charli to note: “What you want, I ain’t got it.” For even her pop star trope embracement can’t be traditional, as we hear on the first single released in support of the record, “Good Ones.” Its moody, visceral opening notes remind us that this is still Charli at her most “anti-pop establishment.” Complete with a funeral-themed video that buries the competition in her field.
While evoking the “confident queen” image in “Good Ones,” Charli shifts gears (pun intended) by showing a bit of insecurity on “Constant Repeat.” Produced by Lotus IV (as was “New Shapes”), Charli rehashes, “I’m focused on you, you’re all on me too/Told you I’m cute and I’m rude with kinda rare attitude.” Perhaps a little too rare, as the object of her affection ends up “going another route” (a.k.a. probably choosing a “Katie girl”). Which prompts Charli to retort, “You said I’m still on your mind, but now I don’t have the time/You should’ve been brave, you missed the chance of a lifetime.”
The full-tilt self-confidence semi returns in the chorus as Charli goads, “Do you realize I could’ve been the one to change your life?/You could’ve had a bad girl by your side.” Alas, men, to this day, still only want, well, not one of the “Katie girls”—even as they lie in bed next to a basique fantasizing about the more sexually adventurous woman they let get away.
Ah, and speaking of “get away,” “Beg For You” highlights either a long-distance or rich person’s relationship as Charli commences with, “You know I go insane every time you have to catch a flight.” Her third single from Crash, this one pulls out all the stops in terms of Charli’s admitted-to show ponying as a Pop Star. For it not only features Rina Sawayama, but also cinches the deal on being a bop by way of sampling from September… who also sampled pretty overtly from Bronski Beat. That said, one gay anthem interpolation begets another, with Charli shrugging of the collab, “She’s queer, I’m a queer ally, we’re coming together to really just live our best lives and sing an iconic pop song.”
And, if that doesn’t move you, then maybe “Move Me” will. With its grandiosity and hypnotic backing music, Charli gives her own unique spin to both “the ballad” as a concept and the “writing camp” song. This particular writing camp consisted of Amy Allen, Jason Evigan and Ian Kirkpatrick (with the latter two also producing). Charli recounted of the process, “As we were doing it, everyone kept talking about how it’d be a great song for Halsey.” Once you hear her say that, you can’t unhear Halsey’s imagined vocals on the track. Kind of like how you can only hear Taylor Swift instead of Rihanna on “This Is What You Came For.” Charli added, “I was like, ‘No, I love Halsey, but this is a great song for me and I’m fucking keeping it.’” Like Madonna keeping her “baby” a.k.a. “Papa Don’t Preach” (originally intended for a relative unknown named Christina Dent).
Once again speaking to the theme of cars as they apply to her self-destructive nature, Charli laments, “I already know I’m letting go of something sacred/Drive us off the road, I take a good thing and I break it.” This, too, echoes her sentiments on “Good Ones” when she says, “And baby, you couldn’t have loved me any better/But doin’ this is all that I’ve known ever/I want the bad ones ’cause they’re all I know/I always let the good ones go.” This form of self-examination gets repurposed on “Move Me” with the lines, “Think it’s in my soul, the way I run from something real, no, I ain’t changing/Wish I could surrender, give you everything I got and let you know/It’s somethin’ ‘bout the way you move me.” And yet, despite many books, movies and songs to the contrary, love is often never enough to keep a good thing going, regardless of being “moved.”
Maybe that’s why Charli decides to go back to her bad girl ways on “Baby,” another single that finds her exuding some signature pop star bravura. The video is also sure to incorporate some of the chutzpah dripping off the track into the choreo seemingly set in what could be Patrick Bateman’s apartment. And as she insists, “I’ma fuck you up, I’ma fuck you up,” we tend to wonder where that girl went again on “Lightning.” Another case in point of the manic mood shift pattern so many women have when it comes to falling in and out of love, and then doubting “true love” when they think they might have found it. With “Lightning,” we find ourselves not only aurally reminded of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek,” but also once more at the beginning of Charli’s honeymoon period with an object of affection (and remember, per the Ballard rule in Crash, everyone becomes an object in an objectifying society).
The specialness of the song when stacked against the others on the record apply to the full-circleness of this being Charli’s final offering for the label. As she explained, “I made this song with Ariel Rechtshaid, who is somebody I’ve collaborated with since I was seventeen, he was a vital part of my album, True Romance, and it was really special to go back to the studio with him and make this song… which I feel like could’ve been a part of True Romance, it really embodies that 80s emotional spirit and drama, which was really inspiring me for this record.” There’s no denying that as we transition into the dreamy “Every Rule.” A tale of how monogamy grows stale, especially when one starts to feel “electricity” with another. In some sense, it belongs in the same pantheon as Rihanna’s “Unfaithful.” While “Yuck,” another “gear shift” on the record, is more in the vein of Rihanna’s facial expression at Drake during that part of the speech he gave at the 2016 MTV VMAs where he confesses he’s been in love with her since he was twenty-two before then presenting her with the Video Vanguard Award.
If only “Yuck” had been in existence at the time, Ri might surely have played it after the show, identifying with such lyrics as, “I’m just tryna get lucky/Yuck, lookin’ at me all sucky/Yuck, quit acting like a puppy/Fuck, going all lovey-dovey on me.” And yes, clearly the main reason for calling a song “Yuck” is to rhyme the word with “fuck.” Charli admits her present “mushy” feelings are at war with the bad girl pop star persona she’s so artfully created as she sings, “Not supposed to feel this way, I’m such a hypocrite/I always frown on love/It’s giving me a tummy ache (all these butterflies make me sick)/Make me fly away (it’s some hocus pocus shit, I’m bewitched).” Charli then veers into Destiny’s Child territory on “Bug-A-Boo” when she describes how this dude is “calling too much, you’re breaking my phone.” The difference is, unlike Beyoncé, Charli is “mad when you do and sad when you don’t.” Elsewhere, she elucidates the push and pull feelings she’s having via the lyrics, “Chivalry, ooh, you taking my coat/Too cute, no, this ain’t me now/Candlelight, out on a starry night/You brush my hair to the side/And you tell me I’m pretty/Yuck, now you got me blushin’.”
The point is moot anyway, as all relationships seem destined for a demise. Whether a full-on crash or a gradual fizzle-out. Which is why “Used to Know Me” (a title that reminds one of Guns n’ Roses’ “Used to Love Her” or Gwen Stefani’s “Used to Love You”) is among the most resonant songs on the album. Sampling from one of the mac daddy 90s dance tracks, Charli makes “Show Me Love” all her own while securing the place of “Used to Know Me” as a favorite of the gays. What’s more, to undercuttingly appeal to that part of her fanbase, there is something in the track’s motif that very much reminds one of Britney Spears breaking free from the poisonous control of those once “close” to her. So when Charli sings, “I’m like a flower blooming since I left you behind/Don’t know what I was doing, thought your venom was divine,” it’s easy to picture Brit dancing to it in her living room, coming up with some memorable choreography for the chorus: “You used to know me, now you don’t/You used to hypnotize me, did it so easy/I’m finally free from your control.”
In the vague spirit of Ariana Grande’s “Just Look Up,” what kind of millennial would Charli be if she didn’t have a song about the end of the world? Enter Crash’s finale (at least until the deluxe edition), “Twice.” It’s a chirpy little ditty that wants to put a positive spin on the prospect of all things coming to an end. Not just figuratively but, like, literally. The third song on Crash to be produced by Lotus IV, this one bears more of a sonic resemblance to “Constant Repeat” than it does to “New Shapes.” And, against the rhythm of the xylophone, Charli surrenders to the idea, “All the things I love are gonna leave me/One day you’re nеver gonna be therе.” It’s a very Billie Eilish moment (e.g. “Everybody Dies”). And so, she self-soothes, “I tell myself to take it easy/Don’t think twice about it, baby/Up on the hill, we’ll see it all end/Die happy thinking ’bout my best friends/‘Til then I’m diving off the deep end/‘Don’t think twice about it,’ I say.” Unfortunately, the apocalypse is a slowly-secreting fart rather than a full-out bang to put this shit to rest.
Even so, Charli offered some insight into “Twice” when she said, “I was kind of just thinking about you know how it would feel if/when the world ends, who I would think about, who I would miss, what memories I would keep at the front of my mind, and whether I would feel I lived my life exactly the way that I wanted to live it.” With Crash, Charli can check Being A Pop Star off the list. Both one “on the fringe” and one who proved that a mass marketing blitzkrieg powered by the major label juggernaut is what it’s all about to get a goddamn number one record in this life.
