BTN News: Charli XCX surprise releases a remix to Brat’s “Girl, What Is She?” featuring Lorde Both artist have unique styles, and announced their collaboration in a creative way that had their fans buzzing.
A Creative Announcement
Charli XCX revealed the collaboration in an unconventional way Thursday morning, using a little something called the Brat wall. Two painters were enlisted to write Lorde’s name on a white wall, generating further buzz. The way the announcement was made also really hit home with supporters, generating a huge amount of social media traffic. Charli later posted a teaser of the track to her private 360_brat page that includes Lorde singing, “Well honestly I was speechless when I woke up to your voicemail / When you told me how you’re feeling, let’s work it out on the remix.”
Definition Friends and Confusion
The original Charli XCX track is about overthinking, insecurity and a difficult frenemy relationship with another singer. Singing about how “people say we’re the same/ They say we have the same hair,” the confusion and complications in their relationship is bluntly addressed by Charli: When both sing, “We talk about making music/But I don’t know if it’s honest. A repetition of the line, “It’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl,” captures this.
Intertextual References
Listen to the track, which notably states, “He said the gun was mine / Isn’t cool, but I read light.”, below, also containing Charli-assisted production. Her response is to cite a Lorde lyric from “Team” (“I’m kinda over being told to throw my hands up in the air”), then to compare her style as an artist to his, “You’re all about writing poems but I’m about throwing parties / I think that you should come to my party and put your hands up,…” These lines point out singularity and similaralties between the two artists.
Evidence of Friendship
However, Lorde’s appearance at Charli’s NY release party only drives home the friendship in those good vibes. Charli also remixed Lorde’s “Green Light” at her Mexico City party Girl DJ event, a sign that collaboraton might be in the stars for these two winners.
Deluxe Album Release
The track follows hot on the heels of Charli XCX releasing a deluxe version of her latest album, Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not, which dropped last Sunday. The deluxe edition will contain the new songs, “Hello goodbye,” “Guess,” and “Spring breakers.”
Critical Acclaim
In their review of the LP, Rolling Stone writes that, “On Brat she stays out later and goes harder than before. She also explores the tail end of those feelings, which are typically shoved under a rug not given that much thought, while she’s spinning around on the dance floor but spiraling out in her head, falling into the kinds of insecurities and fears saved for the comedown the morning after.
