After a year spent in lockdown, it’s evident that Charli XCX is ready to take full advantage of the “no restrictions” policy that has come to roost in 2021. Or, if not “no restrictions,” then at least the ability to work with the assurance of “COVID precautions” being taken. Last year, XCX instead opted to go the full-tilt DIY route with videos including “Forever” and “Claws” for her How I’m Feeling Now album as a means to eke past the artistic limitations of the shutdown as best as she could.
Yet perhaps her “analog” flair wasn’t satisfying enough, hence her near-completion of a fifth album sporting the latest track from her frenetic mind, “Good Ones.” In compensation for last year, it seems, XCX pulls out all the stops—complete with TikTok-ready choreo—in this funerary narrative. After all, since XCX is leaving her twenties next year, she likely wants to make the most of still being seen as “young” in society’s (/Gen Z’s) eyes, hence the TikTok-friendliness. And maybe, just maybe, the funeral element also serves as an unwitting lament for the end of her “youth” (again, as mandated by society’s warped thinking).
Enter Hannah Lux Davis to help with Charli’s grandiose vision. Responsible for creating some of the most iconic video moments of the past few years (ranging from Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” [and most of her other singles] to Halsey’s “Nightmare”), Lux Davis brings Charli XCX’s notions of funeral attendee glory to full fruition. And, at times, one wonders if Charli watched Heathers on repeat before making this, for it emits a similar “knowing” macabre vibe. Especially since Charli sexualizes the graveyard/funeral scene as Cardi B tried and failed to do in the video for “Up” (her own visuals a more blatant rip-off of any girl who has ever posed for a photo on Victor Noir’s grave).
Opening on the slick architectural design of a church in Mexico City that looks plucked straight from both the future and the past (if that makes sense), Charli and her fellow attendees initiate their procession underneath the concrete awnings—giving us a taste of the choreography to come as they present us with bibles in their hands that only go up in flames when they try to open them (not exactly as shocking as Madonna dancing in front of a slew of burning crosses, but still). For, like Charli explains, it’s a “demonic” video, with our anti-heroine being possessed by the desire not only to “let the good ones go,” but to “abandon the goodness in my life, in favor of the sinister.” And, one supposes, there’s still nothing more sinister to the mainstream public than dancing at a funeral, gravesite and/or being sexual in any way within these contexts either.
Of course, that’s precisely what Charli does as she bids adieu in her own way to the “good one” represented by the symbolic beneficence of a man with blonde hair and wearing a white suit (plus, everyone seems “good” when they’re in a casket). But it isn’t so much about this nameless “kind” soul as it is about her—dancing. Embracing the “sin” of her “inability to keep hold of healthy relationships, instead being endlessly drawn back to the dysfunctional and toxic.” Does this mean she’s broken up with Huck Kwong? Or is there truly such a thing as an alter ego for the sake of performance?
If anyone could carry it off in the present (since we no longer have Electra Heart), it’s Charli. The 80s-drenched rhythm, produced by Oscar Holter, lends a touch of the sardonic to lines like, “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.” She leaves out the fact that this is likely due to the fair assumption that there aren’t any “good ones.” Try as we might to believe in them thanks to the indoctrination of fairy tales (perpetuated in remakes like the Camila Cabello version of Cinderella).
Sitting atop his white casket as it’s being taken out of the church in one scene and writhing in front of it in another, it’s clear Charli has no “respect” for the “good ones,” quite possibly because they’re nothing, in the end, but a myth. Every “good one” eventually reveals his true “badness.” In short, the disappointment of being subjected to his ever-showing “humanity” (a polite word for being a dick), his sudden lack of romance—a phenomenon that invariably occurs after enough time has passed in a relationship.
A random shot of one of the guests at the funeral—a mysterious man wearing an eye patch—indicates he’s the type to be more up Charli’s “bad girl” alley. An alley that ratchets up in depravity during the burial process as she’s now switched into nothing more than a leather bikini whilst her dance moves become all the more “demonic” a.k.a. sexual. There’s even a brief flash of her face awash in red, like something out of the Bob in Twin Peaks playbook.
The idea that a woman does not think herself “worthy” of “good” men (the bar for which is set extremely low), therefore “good” love should not be overlooked within the subtext of this song. An overhead shot of her on her own grave (try not to confuse it with what Taylor Swift did in “Look What You Made Me Do”) foreshadows her own demise at the funeral reception, with moments of Charli choking ever so slightly while on the gravestone leading up to her dropping dead amid the mourners. Her corpse does little to affect anyone else, with one attendee stepping over her with ease. Perhaps humans only have the capacity to mourn for one person at a time. Or perhaps Charli is presenting herself as too “bad” to be worth the trouble of mourning. The self-flagellating nature of all women rearing its head in this context.
This, when pitted against Charli’s braggadocious announcement of the song, makes for a pointed contrast. Charli stated of “Good Ones” and its unveiling, “As you already know, I am an iconic figure in the arts, and have helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and the mainstream with my output. My innovative approach has opened up new possibilities within the pop sphere for both myself and others. You’re welcome.” Meant to be tongue-in-cheek (despite its truth), one can tell that the air of sarcasm is part of the self-deprecating conditioning women are taught to have in order to never think themselves “above” anyone, least of all men. And certainly not “good” men. What’s more, if a woman is “bad” enough to not be hopelessly devoted to a “good” man, well, then she must surely deserve the same “karma” Charli receives at the conclusion of the video by dying for her supposed crime. The crime of not buying into the fallacy of the “bon homme.” Mais cherie, il n’existe pas.
