When The World Is Gonna End
I traveled all day yesterday and so didn’t get to write a post. And I’m visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews, so I may not get much of a chance to write this week. But I had to write something, because something big is coming and I really, really like it.
Charli xcx polarized critics with her recent new single, “Rock Music.” Much discourse in the music world has focused on Charli’s lyric “I think the dance floor is dead / So now we’re making rock music”. Madonna tweeted that she might not be listening to the right dance music. But I think it’s tongue-in-cheek—there’s no way the artist who released “365” two years ago actually thinks that. The song “Rock Music” is maybe, marginally rock music. It has guitars, although they sound electronic in origin to my untrained ear. It’s a good song, but it’s less than two minutes long and feels more like a teaser and a playful reentry into the zeitgeist than it does a fully fledged single. Her last studio album, Brat, was such a cultural phenomenon that the entire summer in 2024 was named after it, permanently. It was a good year, as a result.
Well, if “Rock Music” was a teaser, she released her real first single off her as-yet-unannounced 2026 album, “SS26.” It has the same artificial sounding rock instruments, and, on the surface, returns to a vocal theme of fashion. Where Charli always excels is the depth of her lyrical content. She’s the living master of writing lyrics that sound light and fluffy and secretly making them profound. You don’t even have to listen too closely on “SS26,” which has the chorus of “Spring, summer ’26 / When the world is gonna end, no hope for any of it / Yeah we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to Hell, I know.” The entirety of the song is an almost-jaded look at the current state of affairs in the world and how bleak everything feels while so many people are still pretending to act like nothing is wrong.
But there is just something about this song. It’s taken me dozens of listens on repeat to help me realize what it is. It is sufficient to note that I felt compelled to listen to it so many times. It’s definitely not the beat, the rhythm, or the music itself. The lyrics are great, but this song is greater than the sum of its parts. The first thing that struck me is how mature Charli suddenly feels. She’s always going to be a bit of a party girl, and we wouldn’t have her any other way. But “SS26” is unmistakably mature; it shows an astounding level of depth of personality, knowledge, and experience. It’s the type of song that makes me very excited for what’s to come.
Her influences, too, run deep and wide. I had another song on the tip of my tongue all day that “SS26” reminded me of, and I finally realized it was “My Favourite Game” by The Cardigans (1998). The songs sound quite different; I think the similarity lies in the structure and prosody of the lyrics. I thought of The Cardigans’ lyrics “And this is not a case of lust, you see / It’s not a matter of you versus me / It’s fine the way you want me on your own / But in the end it’s always me alone.” Again, it’s not that the lyrics or the content or the music are that similar, but the two songs just have a similar feeling to me. I’ll post “My Favourite Game” below “SS26”—comment below if you hear the connection, too.
She also created a somewhat masterful music video. It’s simple, but it encapsulates her song perfectly.
As of today, I am really, really excited for this new era of Charli xcx. I can’t wait for this album to come out! I love “SS26,” but what it’s really done is shown me just how amazing this album could be. The countdown begins!