REVIEW: Charli xcx "Music, Fashion Film" Tour
To me, this woman can do no wrong.
Charli xcx has always been a trailblazing visionary in the music industry. Everything from her brand to her music sound, her creative use of autotune, her writing, her collaborations, and how she presents herself to the public has not only pushed the hyperpop subgenre into mainstream media, but created pathways that other artists have steadfastly followed. I'm not going to sit here and act like she is the reason the hyperpop subgenre exists when other (and more influential) artists like SOPHIE, Ayesha Erotica, and A.G. Cook exist (mind you, A.G. Cook regularly collabs with Charli now), but what I WILL argue is that Charli is the main reason the subgenre is as big and popular as it is today.
Maybe I should take a step back and introduce this artist to all my heterosexual readers who may not be as knowledgeable about the artist that is Charli xcx (compared to my LGBTQIA+ companions, who worship the ground this woman walks on).
Charlotte Emma Aitchison was born August 2, 1992 (oh hey fellow Leo) in Cambridge, England, and grew up in Essex. Charlotte has gone on record discussing how difficult it was for her, a half Indian, growing up and attending school in Essex, constantly being made fun of for her "frizzy hair". She has also previously admitted that this bullying is what made her want to break out and pursue a different path in her life. Charlotte always had an affinity for music and began to record her own music as a young teenager.
At the ripe age of 14, Charlotte (who, at this point, adopted the stage name & professionally went by Charli xcx, which she said came from her MSN messenger screen name at the time) begged her parents for a small loan to complete her first album, 14. After she completed her album, she began posting songs from the album onto her Myspace page, which caught the attention of a promoter. Said promoter was in charge of running and operating illegal warehouse raves all throughout the East London area; he liked what he heard on Charli's Myspace page so much that he invited her to come perform at these illegal raves. Charli jokes nowadays that she would beg her parents to drive her to these illegal raves to perform, since she was only 14 at the time and did not have a license.
In 2010, Charli was signed to her first major record label, Asylum Records. Charli defines this time as being "lost" around who she was and how she wanted to identify. During this struggle, she flew out to L.A. and met with a producer, who worked with her to write my personal favorite song Stay Away (which was later added to her debut studio album True Romance).
It was around this time of being "lost" when, ironically, Charli really entered the pop culture lexicon. After writing Stay Away, she wrote another song after being sent beats from a famous Swedish producer and named said song I Love It. Yep, THAT song. She initially wanted to scrap the song, but then the Swedish dance pop duo Icona Pop took her recording, remixed it, and released the version that we all know and love in May of 2012. It became an international radio hit upon its release, climbing and peaking at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song shot Charli into the stratosphere of stardom, and to capitalize on this momentum, Charli released her first studio album True Romance in April of 2013 to widespread critical acclaim.
But her stardom was only going to get bigger from there. In 2014, Charli began releasing singles for her next studio album Sucker. This is where my heterosexual readers will likely be more familiar with her work: her two major hits from that era of time were Fancy with Iggy Azalea and Break the Rules. Around the same time that these songs were released, Charli also released her mega-hit Boom Clap as part of a collaboration with the movie The Fault in Our Stars. While Charli was (at the time) at the height of her fame, she didn't quite have the distinct brand or personality that we know and love today.
2015 is when I consider Charli to have started fully coming into herself, and when she became hugely popular with the LGBT+ community. Late 2015 saw the release of her now-incredibly popular song Vroom Vroom, but would you believe me if I told you that the song was a massive flop both critically and commercially upon its initial release? Pitchfork initially panned the song & EP that the song was on, but then went back and re-scored the EP higher, claiming it was "ahead of its time". I personally agree that the song was indeed way ahead of its time - take a look at the songs that were charting at that time; straightforward bubblegum pop music that could be played at any cookie-cutter wedding or middle school dance. Vroom Vroom (the song and EP) is nothing like that - it is abrasive, loud, clunky, and chaotic, but in a beautiful way that so many artists these days try and replicate (but could never reproduce). It had a renaissance on TikTok a couple of years ago, and has since become cherished by music fans and critics alike.
Charli continued to lean into this abrasive, chaotic sound with her following albums, Number1Angel, Pop 2, Charli, and how i'm feeling now (released during the pandemic). Each album saw her evolve into a more refined, improved version of herself, but never fully losing what made Charli, Charli. While most of her music after Sucker (but before brat) did not see the same level of commercial success, her music was massively popular with the chronically online, tumblr, and lgbtq community (and to be frank, those 3 communities are really the same group of people). Even the songs that she released as singles for the aforementioned albums, while considerably more radio-friendly, still had that distinct sound of chaos and amalgamation of odd noises that somehow came together to create a beautiful, frightening melody. Charli also had many hilarious viral moments during these album cycles, including famously signing someone's moms ashes and a douche, doing a DJ set for Grindr on Instagram live, chanting "gay rights" with a bottle of poppers at some random fan event, showing up uninvited to a frat party in D.C. after performing for American University's Welcome Week, and many other hysterical, surreal moments. These album cycles are when Charli cemented herself as an LGBTQ+ legend; our community really loves to rally behind a woman that doesn't take anything seriously except making club beats that sound vaguely like construction noise. Charli herself has said she owes her entire career and success to the gay community, and is a fierce, outspoken ally.
Her next album, CRASH, saw Charli lean more into the generic pop genre sound - she has even gone on record to say that CRASH was what she saw as "selling out" (but in a way that was more experimental for her rather than her actually "selling out", per se, since Charli hadn't leaned into traditional pop sounds since her Boom Clap days). Crash isn't my favorite album of hers, but I do find it to be the most interesting from her pre-brat days given the themes of selling out and playing on pop music tropes.
2 years later (2024): enter the mega-smash hit and album of the summer brat... which started with Charli quietly releasing the first single off that album Von Dutch in February of 2024. brat is considered some of her best work, and its popularity took EVERYONE, even Charli, by surprise. It is by no means a traditional pop album, and in no way fits within the formula of blockbuster pop music, yet against all these odds it became a cultural phenomenon, even creating an entire brat summer movement. I saw her perform this album twice live: once in Boston for her insanely popular SWEAT tour with Troye Sivan, and once in Brooklyn with two high school friends of mine for her solo brat tour. It's an incredible album to hear live, and is a very queer club-coded album, despite xcx not being queer herself. This queer-club-coded-ness is why the album's success was so shocking: it really pushes the boundaries of what can be defined as traditional "music" and toes the line between what is music and what is experimental.
Which brings us to the present & her release of her most recent studio album Music, Fashion, Film. It would have been easy for Charli to lazily cash in and create a brat 2.0, but she decided to instead use the time she had to create something that helped her process the massive shift in her life that brat brought. It's a stunning album, and maintains that Charli-like flair by walking the tightrope between music and experimentation. It's also absolutely nothing like brat in terms of themes (although sonically, one could make the argument that the two albums live in the same camp). While brat was about sex, drugs, and partying (with the occasional, very vulnerable songs about fake friends and mending broken relationships), Music, Fashion, Film is more about how Charli grapples with shooting into the stratosphere of fame. It's much more personal and intimate, and she finds creative ways of expressing her conflicting emotions of enjoying the grandiosity of mega-fame while missing the privacy she once had without using too many words or overexplaining (one of the songs hilariously only has 12 different words total).
Her tour brings that same level of intimacy and grandiosity to her Music, Fashion, Film tour (abbreviating to MFF for the remainder of this review) in inventive and creative ways and gives the album a solid identity. While the influence of brat was still visible on the stage via the club and steel-industrial-like setting, the stage tour managed to successfully encapsulate the vision that Charli had while writing MFF. I had a hard time trying to visualize the themes on MFF (not understand - logically, I got what Charli was saying), but I think the stage performance captured the vision perfectly.
Strengths
When I first listened to MFF, I had a hard time putting a visual in my head of what the album was supposed to "look like". What do I mean by that? Whenever I listen to an album, I can always "assign" a visual identity to that album. For brat, I imagined myself in the middle of an industrial-style club in Berlin. For CRASH, frantically driving behind the wheel of a stolen car a la Grand Theft Auto. In short, it always helps me understand and enjoy an album to envision the imagery the album creator was projecting or trying to project, or come up with something myself. With MFF, I didn't think there was a distinct "look" or "brand" associated with the album outside of "this is so Charli xcx-coded" and "wait, is that Martin Scorsese?!". I had trouble assigning a specific look and theme to the album in my head.
The tour completely changed that.
I think what Charli put together to perform MFF was nothing short of stunning. Everything I saw on stage made perfect sense with the album themes and sound. It felt like I was watching every song on the album come to life right before my eyes. I could sense the story that Charli was conveying through the imagery she projected onto the stage. It was so distinct and unlike any other show I had seen. But the most impressive part is that, despite this project being so unique from her other projects, it was still clearly A Charli xcx project. Every stage blocking choice, lighting angle, sonic choice, dance movement, and effect had a unique flair that can be seen and thought of as "only something Charli would do". Her brand, personality*, and individuality shone through for every second of the show. I want to further break down the three strongest points of the show: the stage/stage setup/stage blocking, the choreography, and the theming.
*I am going to contradict myself in the next section... I'll explain when we get there :)
The stage, upon first glance, seems pretty simple: four large black cubes stacked on top of one another like shipping containers, each one smaller than the last. Much like listening to the album without really digging into it, the stage seemed relatively spartan and basic. Upon closer inspection, though, reveals that the devil is always in the details. Throughout the show, portions of the cubes would light up, revealing designs inside each cube that both Charli and her backup dancers interacted with throughout the show. At the very top of the stage was a gigantic speaker that would only reveal itself during random portions of the show. I thought that this was a perfect encapsulation of the album itself: simple upon first look, detailed and layered when taking a closer look. It also made for an engaging show; the stage always looked a little bit different during each song Charli performed. My absolute favorite moment was when Charli performed House off of her Wuthering Heights album; a large spotlight slowly descended from the roof to the stage, revealing Charli crawling from behind the stage right as her verse started (I have a video of it below). It was a magnificent use of the stage, and just one of many examples that Charli would effectively utilize stage setup and stage space; not a single square inch of that entire stage was not used.
The second biggest strength was the choreography. Charli had a group of backup dancers perform during various parts of the show; sometimes they would all perform, sometimes only a few of them. I am no dancer, so it wouldn't be fair for me to judge any technical aspect of the dancing, but what I can say is that the movements that were choreographed for each song were a perfect encapsulation of that song. The best example I can think of was when Charli was performing guess; the dancers were all writhing and grinding on stage in a manner akin to a nightclub, but in a way that was in sync and well-choreographed; each dancer was moving in their own way but somehow also in sync with the entire rest of the group. It was beautiful, mesmerizing, impressive, and worked so well with the song. But that is something I can say about every single song the dancers were involved with. Sometimes, dancers can get lost on stage during the sheer spectacle of an arena show, but Charli did an excellent job of making the choreography a focus while not having to do any aggressive dancing herself. Charli has confessed in previous interviews that she is not a dancer whatsoever, so letting the backup dancers take over the more complicated movements while making Charli the focal point was a wise move on her part. I remember seeing her for her 2022 CRASH tour, which involved a lot of dancing from Charli, and thinking "she kind of looks like a bird learning how to fly". As much as I love her, I'm glad she hasn't returned to any straightforward pop dance choreography.
The third biggest strength of the show was the lighting, which is funny because there were really only two colors used during the show: white and orange. At times there would be other colors used to reflect a special moment of the show, but the main color scheme was: white (like current street lighting with LED bulbs) and orange (like how old street lighting used to be with the HPS, or high-pressure sodium, bulbs). I thought this was such a perfect artistic choice for the show. The entire stage setup gave off a very industrial kind of vibe, and the light coloring enhanced that vision. It almost seemed like a spiritual homage to the brat album and its industrial, club-like atmosphere rather than a direct homage by using the eponymous brat green color, which I thought was a smart choice. MFF is NOT brat 2.0, and any sort of direct reference to brat outside of the brat songs Charli performed would have taken me out of the moment. MFF is more about what happened after brat and how Charli dealt with the aftermath, so having the lighting feel like I was almost seeing the ghostly aftermath of brat was genius; akin to the feeling of walking through your empty high school hallways after you had graduated. These three specific elements came together to create a unique and different arena experience.
Weaknesses
I'll be honest... I am having a TOUGH time thinking of any weaknesses for this show, except for one. Everything that was done on stage was executed so perfectly, so well-thought through, and matched the album so well that I cannot really think of any valid critiques.
Except for one, like I said.
Charli's attitude and body language.
For a good majority of the show, it felt like Charli really did not want to be there. It didn't help that her only crowd interaction for the entire show was her saying the following:
"hello Boston! [pause for cheers]. Last time I was here [for the SWEAT tour], I was having a mental breakdown. This time, I'm doing much, much better".
Yikes. Doesn't make us feel very wanted, does it Charli?! It doesn't help that Charli left this comment on Instagram saying the following after the MFF tour dates were announced:
Part of me completely sympathizes with her sentiment. Touring is EXHAUSTING - you are constantly traveling and performing, always having to be "on" for your fans, and these days, expectations for concerts are insanely high to justify the increasing cost of a ticket to a show. But this comment, along with her body language throughout the show (which seemed... irritated to say the least) put a sour taste in my mouth.
I said earlier that Charli's personality shone through during the show, which I stand by! But her personality shone through via the stage, lighting, and dancing, not exactly through Charli herself, which I think is okay when it comes to arena tours; you're having to cater to a humongous crowd of people, some of whom are over 1000 feet away and 500 feet off the ground. The people up in the nosebleeds are not exactly going to see the faces you are making or be able to read your body language. I had the luxury of being closer to the stage, which came with the pitfall of seeing Charli's annoyed and standoffish demeanor in its full glory.
I will caveat my own critique by playing devil's advocate with myself: the entire theme of MFF is reconciling newfound fame with the loss of privacy and, in some ways, personal freedom. Maybe Charli was intentionally coming off as aloof and standoffish to try and separate the audience and her stage persona from her real self. MFF is an album about her relationship to fame, questioning its value, and the feeling of a comedown off a cultural peak; maybe her attitude was solely a reflection of those feelings she wrote about in the album. Maybe she emphasized those feelings on stage for us, the audience, so we could feel more immersed in her storytelling. Whole lot of maybes here! (Writing this feels a bit reminiscent of how Lily Allen approached her West End Girl tour; no audience interaction whatsoever, strictly sticking to telling the story of her album through the show, creating an immersive and emotional experience).
My sole weakness of this show is admittedly flimsy at best, but it was noticeable enough for me to feel a bit let down. Of the other three times I saw her live, I never left her show feeling like she didn't want to be there - I cannot say the same for this performance this time around. It did unfortunately affect my perception of the show enough to prevent me from giving this a perfect 5, but not enough to say anything else negative.
Final thoughts
I struggled to come up with a specific visualization of MFF on my own, but every moment of this tour felt like Charli really nailed the identity of MFF. I feel like I understand the album on a much deeper level now, and Charli's emotions while she was making it coming off the high of her brat fame. Although her attitude on stage left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, I really cannot recommend seeing this show enough, or Charli live, if you have the chance.
I'm going to give this a 4.75 out of 5. I was debating between a 4.5 and 4.75, but after watching some of the videos I took, I can't conclude any other way except "WOW".
