‘Charli’: The Full Story Behind Charli XCX’s Delayed Third Album

What were the singles from ‘Charli’?

After 1999, Blame It On Your Love, Gone and White Mercedes were the singles officially released from Charli. Blame It On Your Love, featuring Lizzo, was the album’s second drop, coming out in May 2019. Charli crowned Lizzo “the queen of everything”, and Blame It On Your Love was named “hottest record in the world” on Radio 1. The song itself was a high-pop reworking of Track 10, from Charli’s 2017 mixtape Pop 2; Charli said the song “didn’t feel right until Lizzo was on it”.

Charli’s third single, also released before the album came out, was Gone. Another collaboration, this time with Christine And The Queens (Héloïse Letissier), this duet had been a long time coming. Charli and Letissier had wanted to work together for years, but nothing had yet felt right. Describing the song as an “external scream”, Charli wrote on her Instagram that Gone was “about those situations where you are surrounded by loads of people but feel so isolated and alone. I feel like that a lot of the time in social situations.” The song contains one of Charli’s most memorable lyrical couplets, relatable to everyone who’s ever clung to the wall at a party: “I feel so unstable/Fucking hate these people.”

White Mercedes, released as a single in October 2019, is one of the most emotional songs on Charli. By the singer’s own admission, it related to how she could be this “annoying, hectic person” in relationships. “Obviously I like cars,” Charli said in 2019, referring to 2016’s Vroom Vroom EP, “and the song is about me moving too fast and burning through this relationship and throwing it all away… Cars are fast and I move fast. Boom!”

What are the guest features on ‘Charli’?

Charli has no fewer than 13 guest features. “With collaboration, I’m not getting in the studio with anyone who I don’t know personally or don’t like,” Charli said in 2019. “Every artist on the album is someone I love and respect and know a lot about their music.” From Haim to Yaeji, the guests on Charli are enormously diverse and bring out different aspects of Charli’s sound.

Highlights include Sky Ferreira, on Cross You Out (“I really love Sky,” Charli said in 2024. “She’s one of a kind”). This was one of the first collaborations that Charli worked on for the album, and was particularly special as Sky is known for being selective with her feature spots. Charli revealed that she was nervous during the collaboration, saying, “Oh my god, I hope this doesn’t go away and I hope that she doesn’t change her mind, because she’s so good.”

Another standout is Click, with Kim Petras and Tommy Cash. Charli has called this song “fucking mad. It’s full mania,” and “Vroom Vroom part two”. She started Click in New York City before taking it to Los Angeles, where she got Kim and Tommy’s verses. “I was crucified by them,” Charli has said of their exceptional work on this song.

What is Charli XCX’s most successful album?

Brat, released in 2024, has been Charli XCX’s most successful album to date. But Charli was also a commercial and critical success, reaching No.14 in the UK and gaining extremely positive reviews. This spoke to Charli’s quality and consistency, particularly given the album’s hard road to release.

Not that success by other people’s standards has really been a consideration for Charli. In 2024, at the age of 31 and with six albums to her name, she spoke of her unwillingness to play by others’ terms. “I’m happy with the winding path I’ve taken, and with my status as more of an outsider, because sometimes I feel a bit awkward being in the club. I’m at peace with it all. It’s all cool.” Part of this “winding path” has always involved taking chances, innovating with sound, and simply never sitting still. Charli does all of this and is an album made by an assured yet creatively restless artist.

When Charli XCX was asked how it felt to have the Charli album out, she was impatient with the question. “I’m supposed to be like, ‘I’m so excited. It’s the best day of my life. It’s cool, yeah,’” she said, before letting fly what she was really thinking: “I want to make the next one.”

Find out which ‘Charli’ cuts are among the best Charli XCX songs.