Apart from Britney Spears, Charli XCX is one of the few white female pop stars to realize Janet Jackson has been a more untapped reserve when it comes to emulation. Especially compared to the certified Queen of Pop, Madonna (despite what Lizzo might believe). While Brit chose more choreography-oriented inspiration from Miss Jackson, Charli is opting to go for the sound that defined Janet in her Control era. Making no secret that she’s been listening to plenty of JJ as inspiration for her forthcoming fifth album, Crash, “New Shapes” possesses the distinctive “80s Janet” sound that “Good Ones” does not (instead melding decided “Charli-ness” with quintessential 80s-ness).
In conjunction with Christine and the Queens (who also appears with XCX on 2019’s “Gone”) and Caroline Polachek, Charli is certain to get across the key message: “What you want, I ain’t got it.” In essence, going entirely against what Aretha said on “Respect” with, “What you want/Baby, I got it.” Instead, she’s highlighting the alternate directive: “Don’t come around here no more/Whatever you’re looking for.” More specific still, what Clementine famously declared to Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: “Too many guys think I’m a concept or I complete them or I’m going to ‘make them alive’—but I’m just a fucked-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.”
Charli seems to have realized this after the year of “introspection” that was 2020 and the so-called lockdown in America. Mind you, as social media revealed, celebrities were free to come and go as they pleased. But Charli came across as one of the few to be “home-bound” with her longtime boyfriend, Huck Kwong. And though the two songs from Crash that we’ve heard thus far sound like they were begat of a breakup, it speaks more to Charli’s “Swift-ian” shift to storytelling in songs in a manner that has less to do with her personal life and more to do with her new philosophy, “I’m done with being authentic.”
She also seems “done” with the sweatpants and baggy tee uniform that many people adopted during the height of the pandemic, now choosing to go the whole nine yards with the sort of “slutty chic” attire associated with pleather and sky-high heels. Let the Golden Age (2010-2012) aesthetic of Tumblr re-commence. It certainly goes well with Charli’s sonic landscape on “New Shapes,” wherein she proves that the “old” is integral to creating them. Produced by Lotus IV and Deaton Chris Anthony, the song oozes notes (bearing a similar instrumentation to Jessica Simpson’s “I Think I’m in Love With You,” therefore John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”) that take us straight back to the 80s—which, in spite of Reaganomics, is a decade that many people would prefer to be in right now.
Sensing the collective need for “party” music, Charli delivers in spades with this follow-up anthem to “Good Ones,” spinning the yarn as though from the perspective of a newly single woman ready to take on the dance floor (or just a TikTok dance sequence). Singing, “We could fall in love in new shapes/New shapes/And when the morning comes/I’m sorry, I stayed/Tell you honestly, I can’t change, can’t change.” In some respects, it’s as though Charli is speaking from the viewpoint of humanity (and government) itself—pretending it’s capable of changing (namely with regard to how the environment is treated), only to revert to the methods that have proven most “comfortable” in the past.
The complementing vocals of Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek (who collaborated recently with the former on “La Vita Nuova”) lend an earnest intensity to the moments when they harmonize on the insistent chorus, “What you want/I ain’t got it.”
Polachek contributes a bridge that might just put the one in “drivers license” to shame as she laments, “Maybe we’re meant for another dimension, babe/Deep in the dark of your brain like a star in space/You call it art, but you pulled on my heart/And you twisted it into a new shape/Yeah, I’m dive bar-ing again and again/Trying to get up close to you/Fucked if I know how it’s gonna end/But honestly, life would be better if I never met you in the first place.” Many a woman has certainly felt that way about many a cad. And this seems to be the song to help a girl come to terms with the idea that maybe not being (or having) “what he wants” is for the best. Especially for one’s complexion.
