Charli XCX finally releases that damn “Baby” song

When Charli XCX played a snippet of her song “Baby” during an Instagram live a while back, fans went ballistic. They wanted the song BAD. They ran that clip back constantly. Stitched that bitch into a 4 minute loop. Made memes. All the things. Then Charli turned around and released some boring ass song with Rina Sawayama - which made me feel a type of way, because I really like Rina.

But thankfully, Charli’s team saw sense and decided to release “Baby”. Finally.

Back in February, Charli XCX had announced that she was going to step away from Twitter and let her team handle all of that shit for a whole bunch of reasons. But the one reason which stuck out was her feelings over fans opinions on how she’s rolling out her album. And this definitely seems to be a sticking point for her, because despite saying she was going to step away from Twitter, she replied to a fan who had some choice words about Charli’s recent single choices, just for fans to quote retweet the everlasting shit out of Charli.

Not all of Charli’s fans are fucking with the Crash rollout. And I can understand why. When I first heard “Good Ones”, I liked that Charli returned to the sound of her debut True Romance. It was a cool full circle moment, given the disdain she seemed to have for that album, and the extent to which she went to distance herself from it. But then the singles which followed...weren’t that great. “New Shapes” was fine. But it felt like it should have been a single separate from Crash. And it didn’t help that Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek both had a stronger presence on the song AND in the video than Charli did. AND that both of Charli’s first songs with each of them (“Tears” and “Gone”) were far better. Charli’s never been precious about being overshadowed on songs. But to go with this song choice was...a choice, because it just wasn’t strong enough to do much of anything. And it also didn’t follow in the direction that “Good Ones” seemed to imply Charli was headed in. Then you had “Beg for You” with Rina, which seemed like a weird single choice to go with at a time when fans were already chomping at the bit for “Baby”, and Charli was already teasing that the song was coming. It felt like a bait and switch.

But I also get why Charli has picked the singles that she has. Each song represents specific eras in popular music which have always influenced her sound from the very beginning. But the problem is that the singles are making the Crash album come off as though it’s just a jukebox of songs, and not a cohesive body of work. I don’t think Charli has ever released a string of singles which have felt as different to one another as “Good Ones”, “New Shapes”, “Beg for You” and “Baby”. Each of which are helmed by a different team of writers and producers, none of whom are A.G. Cook, who I’m sure is low key cackling at the backlash.

Charli XCX - Baby | © 2022 Asylum Records / Warner Music 

You know when you hear a snippet of a song, and you really fucking like it and anticipate it; then it releases, and it’s not everything you hoped it would be? That’s how I feel about “Baby”. I really fucked with that snippet y’all. The song as a whole is just so underwhelming. Although the SNL performance of it elevates it massively, all because one of the dancers sells the absolute shit out of the song. I ain’t gotta tell you which dancer. You will know by the time Charli starts singing.

Charli looks really good in the video though. It’s great to see her embracing her body, and doing all of the pop star things that she once felt she could do, or was told wasn’t cool for a pop star to do.

Artists who try to distance themselves from pop shit always come back around to it. This is the way.