Charli XCX's First Song She Made In Quarantine Is Here — And It's Wild
Charli XCX wasn't kidding when she announced that she's been hard at work on a new album, How I'm Feeling Now. Today (April 9), she's released the first song from it — the robotic ballad that is "Forever." It's about sheer adoration, to the most mechanical degree.
If toasters listened to songs when they made love, "Forever," would be on their playlist. It unfolds from a harsh opening of boiling synths into a slightly smoother sore throat of a cyborg who's doing its best impression of a lovestruck human. A robotic wind glosses over this apocalyptic Terminator-like landscape, bringing a sugary presence to the track that sings about its intense infatuation with a partner. It's Charli if you can't tell, buried beneath all manner of cords, wires, and flashing buttons.
Charli's love here is so enviable. She took a dive into the blue with her feelings and now she's swimming in love, as she knew she would. "I will always love you/ I'll love you forever/ Even we're not together/ I will always love you," she sings with giant, pink, pulsating hearts in her animated eyes. The entire amorous spill will bring a tear to your eye. This is a love that survives being hunkered down together in a quarantine and driving each other crazy. As electrical as "Forever" sounds, it feels extremely human.
It took just two days for Charli to make "Forever." In a statement, she revealed that she collaborated virtually with frequent collaborators A.G Cook and BJ Burton. "This is a working process that will continue throughout the album, with the entirety of the project being written, recorded, produced and released while in quarantine due to the world pandemic," it reads.
That project, How I'm Feeling Now, is currently set to arrive on May 15. Last month, she revealed in one of her "self quarantine diary" entries that she was hard at work on completing the LP. "I had one song left to write and then it was all about finishing and production and artwork etc. obviously things have slowed now but I do feel excited to wrap this up and be releasing new music soon, of course only when it's ready," she wrote.
Later in that same entry, she gave out some details about what to expect with How I'm Feeling Now. "What can I tell you about this album.... well, there are less collaborations, Chris and I have been talking about reuniting (alongside someone else), it has felt very quick to make, AG [Cook] is involved, I want it to be quite short in comparison to CHARLI, there are a lot of songs about sex and physicality."
Take a listen to Charli's robotic new love song "Forever" up above.