“I’m really nervous,” Charli XCX laughed shyly, addressing a room of 150 die-hard fans (otherwise known as her Angels) at Metrograph in Manhattan on Thursday evening. Every seat of the indie cinema’s theater 1 was occupied—and all eyes were transfixed on the star. The undivided attention was not just because it was a strictly no-phones-allowed event, but also because it would be the first time anyone heard her new material, which is slated for release on July 24.
She was serious about the no camera rule, too. “Don’t f*cking film,” the Grammy winner said, only half-jokingly, before relenting, “I mean…it’s going to leak somehow.” Between July 9 and 11, the British artist’s highly-anticipated seventh studio album—Music, Fashion, Film—will be played exclusively in independent cinemas in 25 cities around the world. And for those lucky enough to score a spot at the New York City stop, it meant that the listening party came with a side of Charli herself.
Dressed in a sharp-shouldered black leather jacket, a sheer lace top, and velvet pants with a gold rope belt (even in the July heat), her inky raven hair grazed her shoulders in polished waves. To the surprise of the room, her omnipresent sunglasses were absent. “I am so proud of this body of work,” she began, explaining that she made the videos and the footage that was about to be projected with the help of her friends.
“That’s kind of like a big theme throughout the record—me and my friends, you know, controversially, so,” she quipped, referencing lyrics from her divisive latest single, Rock Music. Some of those friends lined the walls of the theater as she continued: “This album is about how lucky I feel to be able to do what I do. I feel so indebted to art and getting to create things. It’s such a huge part of who I am. Actually, without being able to make things, I kind of don’t know who I would be. The fact that I probably don’t know who I am without being able to make songs and write and create is, I guess, a little bit weird, and depressing. But luckily right now I’m doing that, so it’s fine.”
Just a few hours earlier, the Lower East Side had been drenched in a torrent of unpredicted rainfall. But by the time the barricades had been erected on either side of Ludlow Street, the skies had cleared and a colorfully dressed crowd snaked down the block. Tellingly, there wasn’t a single sighting of electric Brat green in the mix. Avid fan Alex, 24, was wearing a sold-out Urban Outfitters concert t-shirt from the Brat era, though. “This new album already feels so different from the last one, but it still has that Charli attitude. She reveals a little bit more about herself with each record,” she said.
Sydney, 29, was another guest buzzing with adrenaline. She was wearing a t-shirt from Charli’s Conversations event back in May, where ten fans were chosen to speak to her about her songwriting process. Sydney wasn’t part of that group, but she did get a shirt for queuing up. “When other artists get bigger, they price us out, so it’s interesting to see her take the opposite approach. She’s giving us a peek behind the curtain and is also being a lot more vulnerable than we’ve seen in the past.”
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