Review Summary: "You talkin' to me?" Yes, Charli XCX is.
I didn't want to talk about this. Much like how we can't discuss the comedic heights of
The Opie and Anthony Show without mentioning Cumia's penchant for young ladies and biting his girlfriend, the discussion of the progression of Charli XCX's career must come back to
Brat. It's almost like no cookout is complete without them. Whether we (or Charles, for that matter) like it or not, the legacy of the fabled
Brat Summer simply can't be avoided when Charli XCX is the topic of conversation.
But where does that bring us now? Juxtaposition personified like we haven't seen in ages. Before you even hear a note of music, just look at the covers of
Brat and Charles's latest release
Music, Fashion, Film. This is a table turn not seen since Fleetwood Mac's
Tusk shocked and appalled the suburban qualude-lovers who gobbled up
Rumours like a bunch of turkeys with coke nails and polyester suits. And much like how
Tusk alienated the portion of The Mac's audience that also loved, say, Steve Miller Band or Ambrosia, Charli has decided to take on the same task (or tusk?) of dropping a steamer right into the ears, eyes, and mouths of the unsuspecting r/popheads poptimists with a proud declaration of artistic legitimacy. Lucky for those of us with a taste for the arcane, the esoteric, the transcendental,
Music, Fashion, Film screams loud and proud to the world: "Oh, you like Ice Spice? Sorry, you dumb vapid bitch, I am into Ingmar Bergman now." And we know
The Seventh Seal is a hell of a lot deeper than
Minions.
A lot of the anti-intellectual ditty-addicts of today who only care about "bops" and "slaps" won't tell you this, but there was a time when our premiere popstars were not brain damaged stooges carrying water for the military-industrial complex and the Epstein class.
Music, Fashion, Film harkens back to the days of tastemakers like Carole King and Madonna. They mined the hidden caves of art too often kept hidden from the masses, and they gave these ideas to the general public to enrich their consciousness. I remember watching "Vogue" on the VMAs like it was yesterday. It wasn't even a day later that people who didn't even know who Marie Antoinette was beforehand were wearing crazy wigs and big French dresses to school. This is what Charles aims to accomplish on
Music, Fashion, Film. Critical cynics might call it hackneyed and shallow, but we are already observing Tiktok explode with young women "Bicklemaxxing." Men all over the web are trading diet tips on how to mimic Willem Dafoe's Christlike physique in
Last Temptation. And Scorsese isn't even the only guy on the goddamn cover. There's two other art guys on there. When's the last time you heard Cardi B sample "Counselor, come out, come out, wherever you are"? To those laughing at Charles, she asks a defiant question: "Funny how?"
