| Girl, So Confusing | |
| Artist: | Charli XCX |
| Album: | Brat |
| Genre: | Indie dance |
| Length: | 2:54 |
| Label: | Atlantic |
| Producer: | A. G. Cook |
"Girl, So Confusing" (stylised in sentence-case) is a song by English singer Charli XCX from her sixth studio album Brat (2024). She wrote the song with its producer A. G. Cook and released it through Atlantic Records. A glitch-influenced indie dance song, "Girl, So Confusing" is built on talk-sing Auto-Tune vocals and a throbbing bassline. It deals with Charli XCX's strained relationship with another female musician.
Upon its release, fans and critics speculated about the subject of the song, with many believing it to be about New Zealand singer Lorde, a fact that Charli XCX later confirmed in a profile interview with Billboard. A remix featuring Lorde was released on 21 June 2024. The remix received universal acclaim from music critics, with many praising the track's lyrics and themes. It charted in the top 40 in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and peaked in mid-tier positions in Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Charli XCX first teased "Girl, So Confusing" in a February 2024 interview with The Face. Shaad D'Souza then wrote that the track was "sure to send Deuxmoi and Discord servers into overdrive" as it "finds Charli singing about the fraught relationship she has with an unnamed female artist".[1] She later clarified on her TikTok account that Brat did not contain any "diss tracks", with the exception of the album's lead single, "Von Dutch" (2024). The singer wrote the song as a way to explore the nuanced and complex relationships female pop artists are expected to maintain between one another in the limelight.
Upon the release of Brat, Outs Mey Rude reported about fans' speculations that the song may be about Japanese and British singer Rina Sawayama, Welsh singer Marina Diamandis or New Zealand singer Lorde. Sawayama and Charli XCX's relationship was reported to be damaged due to a feud between Sawayama and the 1975 frontman Matty Healy,[2] whom Sawayama has accused of racism and owning her master recordings;[3] Charli XCX is engaged to the 1975's drummer George Daniel.[4] The "girl" in the track's title was speculated to be a reference to Sawayama's second studio album Hold the Girl (2022).[5]
Charli XCX and Diamandis collaborated in 2013 on "Just Desserts", a standalone single used to promote Diamandis' the Lonely Hearts Club Tour, with Charli XCX performing as an opening act.[6] In 2016, Charli XCX released a series of fruit-themed photos, shot by photographer Charlotte Rutherford, for an advertisement campaign with British fragrance company Impulse. Diamandis, who had previously worked with Rutherford on the cover artwork for her 2015 single, "Immortal", as well as the photoshoot for her 2015 album Froot and Neon Nature Tour, responded on her Twitter account, writing: "Imagery is artistic property. Please respect your fellow artists."[6] She also responded to an image posted by Charli XCX to her Instagram account, writing: "This Froot looks familiar", which became a meme phrase.[7] Charli XCX responded, stating that she did not use Diamandis' artwork for inspiration on the advertisement campaign as she was unaware of the illustrations, but confessed that after seeing the images, they shared similarities with Diamandis' photoshoot.[8] In a comment posted on Charli XCX's 360_brat Instagram account in 2023, Charli stated that she felt "really hurt and upset and confused" by Diamandis' decision to respond publicly to the situation, further leading speculations of the song's subject being Diamandis.[7]
"Girl, So Confusing" has been described as a glitch-influenced indie dance song[9] [10] built on talk-sing Auto-Tune vocals and a throbbing bassline.[11] The New York Times wrote that the production had a "strobe-lit beat", while Pitchfork called the song "sparkly" and "scuzzy".[12] Charli XCX's vocals were compared to those of American-French singer Uffie by PopMatters, describing them as having a "husky timbre" before changing into "unimaginably catchy spirals."[13] NME compared its production to Charli XCX's 2017 hyperpop mixtape, Pop 2.[14] Consequence noted that the pitched-up "Girl!" vocal samples sound "chipper and deflated".[15] According to Renowned for Sound, the song incorporates fuzzy synths and pitched backing vocals.[16] Upon release, the song was widely discussed by media outlets, due to its subject matter. The lyric, "Think you should come to my party / And put your hands up" was interpreted to be a response to Lorde's 2013 single, "Team", where she sings, "I'm kind of over gettin' told to throw my hands up in the air / So there".[17] The line "You're all about writing poems" was viewed as a reference to Lorde's poetic songwriting and Melodrama track, "Writer in the Dark" (2017). Exclaim! described the song as being a "bit petty, a bit sweet, bravely embarrassing, and combative". During an interview with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang for their Las Culturistas podcast, Charli XCX affirmed that while she respects the growing companionship between female artists in pop music, she also sees the nuances between said relationships: "I don't think you become a bad feminist if you maybe don't see eye to eye with every single woman. That's not the nature of human beings. There's a competitiveness between us. There's envy. There's camaraderie. There's all of these different dynamics."
| Girl, So Confusing featuring Lorde | |
| Cover: | Charli XCX, Lorde - The Girl, So Confusing Version with Lorde (single cover).png |
| Alt: | Black and white picture of Charli XCX looking at herself in the mirror |
| Type: | remix |
| Artist: | Charli XCX and Lorde |
| Album: | Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat |
| Length: | 3:26 |
| Label: | Atlantic |
| Producer: | A. G. Cook |
Lorde experienced mainstream success after releasing her debut single "Royals" and debut album Pure Heroine in 2013.[18] The artist's aesthetic and physical features were compared by media outlets to those of Charli,[19] who also released her debut album True Romance that same year and achieved mainstream success with her 2012 collaboration "I Love It" with Swedish synth-pop duo Icona Pop.[20] In a 2014 interview, Charli XCX was mistaken for Lorde when the interviewer asked her about the inspiration for "her" song "Royals". Charli XCX did not correct the interviewer but rather played along and answered the question, continuing the satirical and humorous tone of the interview.[21] This later inspired a decade-long meme comparing the two singers.[22]
In a May 2024 interview with Rolling Stone UK, Charli XCX revealed she had initially been envious of Lorde and her commercial success with "Royals". She said: "[Lorde] had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick. You create these parallels and think, 'Well, that could have been me.'"[23] However, the envy was brief and the two singers eventually ended up on good terms. She confessed that their different musical styles had assured her that they were "two completely different people" and that she thought this way due to insecurities about her own work.[23]
Charli XCX attempted communication with Lorde for a collaboration for almost a year but was unsuccessful in meeting with the singer to write material.[24] In a Billboard interview, she stated that this "spoke to the narrative of the song itself." A day before releasing Brat, Charli XCX sent Lorde a voice note explaining that she was the inspiration behind the song. She revealed to New Zealand radio DJ Zane Lowe on his Apple Music 1 show that she was prepared for Lorde to "never speak to her again." Due to time zone differences between Charli and Lorde, who resides in New Zealand, she heard the song before receiving Charli's message.[25] Lorde replied instantly, however, apologizing for her actions and suggested that she feature on a remix of the track. Charli XCX revealed that the remix took 3 days to materialize.[26]
Upon the release of Brat, Lorde extensively praised the album on her Instagram Stories, revealing it was the "only album [she's] ever pre-saved".[27] On 11 June 2024, Lorde attended Charli XCX's show at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater. Charli XCX announced a collaboration with Lorde on 20 June by hiring a team of house painters who painted Lorde's name on a white wall located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.[28] A remix of the track with Lorde was released the following day. The remix was included as the tenth track on her first remix album, Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat.[29] Lorde stated that writing her verse for the remix led her to feel "deep empathy" for Charli XCX, but "misunderstood" with a sense of urgency to "make it right" between the two.[30] The singer also credits Charli XCX for opening a "channel" between them and allowing her to say things she had not said before.[30] After the remix was released, Charli XCX posted a screenshot of Lorde's text message in which she sent Charli the entirety of her verse, to which Charli replied, "Fucking hell".
The remix expands on the original track's discussion of complex and competitive dynamics within female friendships,[31] [32] jealousy,[33] insecurities,[34] and rivalry,[35] but provides an answer from Lorde, who explores her struggles with body image,[36] disordered eating, and self-confidence on her verse.[37] Lorde's verse was described by critics as "honest",[38] "vulnerable",[39] and "cathartic".[40] Clash declared the remix an "inversion" of the original, calling it a "celebration of female energy and a condemnation of the aspects that keep women apart." Similarly, Exclaim! noted that the remix reframed the original track's "nervy monologue into a healing and surprisingly affecting dialogue between two left-field pop stars who've been pitted against one another" since their adolescent years. The lyrics were described by The New York Times as being "mutually messy risk-taking, honest reckoning with the fun-house mirrors of fame and conflict resolution you can dance to."
Upon release, the song received universal acclaim from music critics, many of which praised the song's lyrics and themes, calling it one of the most important pop culture moments of the year. Vultures Jason P. Frank and Alejandra Gularte wrote that Lorde's verse "fits directly into the world of Brat" due to its honesty, adding that "it sheds a whole new light on the Solar Power era." Pitchfork awarded the song its Best New Track distinction, calling it a "meeting of the minds, two great pop stars being vulnerable and self-aware while making a watershed moment in pop in the process."[41] Clash called it a milestone and revelatory, awarding it a 9 out of 10 score.[42] The New York Times called it a refreshing moment,[43] while Exclaim! selected it as one of their staff picks, stating that it was a "watershed moment" amid the "anodyne therapy and straining empowerment" prevalent in the "last decade of pop music".[44] Similarly, Uproxx awarded the song its Best New Pop distinction,[45] while The Guardian called it the year's most powerful pop moment.[46]
The track was further praised by music critics following the release of Brats remix album, Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat. AP News,[47] Dazed,[48] and DIY ranked the song as the best song from the remix album.[49] Billboard ranked it fifth in their song ranking of the remix album, with Katie Bain stating that the track helped to "draw out the true confessions of big stars like Ariana Grande and the 1975s Matty Healy."[50] The remix won the 2024 Popjustice £20 Music Prize, a prize which recognises the best British pop single of the previous year.[51]
| Time span | Rank | Published year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclaim | Year-end | 1 | 2024[52] | |
| The Independent | 1 | 2024[53] | ||
| NPR | 2024[54] | |||
| NME | 4 | 2024[55] | ||
| Paste | Mid-decade | 16 | 2024[56] | |
| Pitchfork | Year-end | 9 | 2024[57] | |
| Mid-decade | 25 | 2024[58] | ||
| Rolling Stone | Year-end | 9 | 2024[59] | |
| Stereogum | 3 | 2024[60] | ||
| Vulture | 9 | 2024[61] | ||
| Peak position | |
| Australia (ARIA)[62] | 50 |
|---|---|
| Australia Dance (ARIA)[63] | 3 |
| Peak position | |
| Greece International (IFPI)[64] | 99 |
|---|---|
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[65] | 24 |