here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\nSong of the Week: Charli xcx, \u201cCamera\u201d<\/h2>\n
In my time at Paste<\/em>, I don\u2019t think any artist has landed three singles from the same album on this weekly roundup. None of us on staff have even heard Music, Fashion, Film<\/em> yet, but its teasers have already taken over our Slack. I\u2019ve been especially skeptical about Charli xcx\u2019s output this decade\u2014after worshipping at the altar of Pop 2<\/em>, I loved how i\u2019m feeling now<\/em>, but came away lukewarm on CRASH<\/em> and Brat<\/em>\u2014but \u201cCamera\u201d may just be my favorite song of hers since \u201cTrack 10.\u201d I love a good identity-crisis blowout, and Charli\u2019s meditation on her acting pivot\u2014a pursuit that makes her feel \u201csomething new and discovered and something kind of violent, daring to fail and being ugly\u201d\u2014is too good to French-exit from. <\/p>\nNearly half her life has been spent onstage, and now music \u201cmakes me wanna throw my life away.\u201d If \u201cSS26\u201d was \u201cI think about it all the time,\u201d then \u201cCamera\u201d is \u201cI might say something stupid,\u201d or even \u201cparty 4 u.\u201d In a vocal fry, Charli sings about not feeling embarrassed if she sucks when the camera is on her, because she craves \u201can experience that feels dangerous.\u201d And it would be easy\u2014and probably fair\u2014to roll my eyes at her for taking this position in her own creative impasse, considering that she released the most acclaimed pop album of 2024 and just made her own A24 movie about it. <\/p>\n
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But as soon as those synths pan from center to wide, all the monochrome pageantry of this era bursts into color. She\u2019s outgrown indie fame, her eyes firmly fixed on the stars in the pavement. To hell with a bridge, to hell with compression sliders, to hell with flipping your hair around in a damp boiler room. \u201cCamera\u201d is full of dissonance: itch-scratching beats, textured guitars, a sudden ending without resolution. All of it proves that Charli\u2019s partnership with A.G. Cook and Finn Keane hasn\u2019t dulled her appetite for risk. The rollout to Music, Fashion, Film<\/em> so far has grappled with the consequences of fame, industry pressure, and the long shadow of Brat<\/em>. On \u201cCamera,\u201d the only consequence is that Charli feels \u201cinspired and alive.\u201d It\u2019s something to root for. I\u2019ve already listened to it forty times. \u2014Matt Mitchell<\/em><\/p>\n