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I like to imagine that, in 2016, there was a fan of \u201cBoom Clap\u201d and \u201cBreak The Rules\u201d who paid for a digital download of a new Charli xcx EP, pressed play on \u201cVroom Vroom,\u201d and spat it out like spoiled milk. In other words, the hard pivot of \u201cRock Music,\u201d her cheeky, too-brief new single, has precedent. You could call Charli a troll for constantly flipping the script on her own success. Or, you could see her for what she is. An art-school kid: brave, brazen and curious about whatever the hell she can do next.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In some ways, \u201cRock Music\u201d is reactionary, with discourse-bait lines like \u201cI think the dancefloor is dead\u201d or \u201creal incestuous vibes.\u201d It\u2019s too short to fully sink its teeth in, clipping out on one syllable of \u201cRock\u201d (\u201cRo-ro-ro-ro-ro\u201d). Its metallic guitars are pulled right from <\/span>Soft Rock, <\/span><\/i>the 2023 collaborative album from A.G. Cook<\/a> and Finn Keane under the moniker Thy Slaughter. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n But I hear it as a necessary reset. For an artist whose last album was preoccupied with the endless Artistic Project of Being A Celebrity, \u201cRock Music\u201d finds Charli back to her roots. No, this is not a \u201cback-to-basics,\u201d Boomer-bait, rustic project we might expect from its title. But it expresses the freedom she finds in making a thing: pick up the guitar, jump off the stage, try hard. When the bratty bandwagon leaves you behind, at least you\u2019ve still got the band.<\/span><\/p>\n review by Andy Steiner<\/p>\n