Charli XCX and Lorde put an end to the rumors with a refreshing remix

For many people these days, “pop music” is an oxymoron. Catchy hooks tend to simplify complex emotions into universal, readable sentiments, temporarily dividing the world into teams: heartbroken versus victims, happy versus sad, boys versus girls. Although they’re infectious, many of the songs on Charli How refreshing.

Charlie Lord is never mentioned by name in the album’s complex ninth song, “Girl, so confusing.” But all signs point to it being a somewhat socially awkward, poetry-loving look-alike to whom the song was directed. (“People say we look alike, they say we have the same hair,” Charlie sings, winking at those of us who remember when The interviewer asked her About writing “The Royal Family” by Lorde.)

It wasn’t clear how we were supposed to understand this song in the limited and polarized language of 2020s music audiences, which pits female pop stars against each other like professional athletes while still insisting on “supporting women” in every way. Times with a benevolent smile. . “Sometimes I think you might hate me, sometimes I think I might hate you,” Charlie babbles over A.G. Cook’s hard-lit tune, one of many “Wait, are you even allowed to say that anymore?” Moments on the series “Pratt”. The song strains clickbait’s vocabulary. Is this a “dis path” or the beginning of a “feud”? Do girls fight? And if so, what could Lorde do in the VIP section of Charlie’s latest show?

It’s complicated, and fortunately it is The surprise remix featuring LordeShe released her first new lyrics three years ago. After Charli unpacks her emotions and projections in that first verse, Lorde responds in a sharp, late-night tone of voice: “You’d always say, ‘Let’s go out,’ but then you called it off at the last minute,” the New Zealander admits, “I was so lost.” “In my mind and afraid to be in your pictures.” She then reveals, devastatingly, that she was “at war with my body,” insecure about the fluctuations in her weight, and that the mysterious aura she created was actually a suffocating defense mechanism That so succinctly and with a tempo that easily matches Cook’s should get everyone excited for her next album, whenever it comes out.