Charli XCX has shared a new version of ‘Girl, so confusing’, featuring a contribution from Lorde, who inspired the song in the first place.
Charli began teasing the collaboration yesterday, redesigning a billboard of her album art to simply display the word ‘Lorde’ and then sharing a snippet of the new remix on her private Instagram account.
And now, the full version of the song is out, and you can listen to it below.
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The girl, so confusing version with lorde – Out at midnight est. pic.twitter.com/RYM3mwRGff
— Charli (@charli_xcx) June 20, 2024
In the new version, Lorde sings: “Well honestly I was speechless / When I woke up to your voice note / You told me how you’ve been feeling / Let’s work it out on the remix”.
Charli has previously spoken about how Lorde served as the partial inspiration for the song, admitting to being “super jealous” of the New Zealander’s success when she was younger: “She was into my music. She 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.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people.”
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Charli has clarified the pair remain good friends, with Lorde even praising her recent album ‘Brat‘ saying: “The only album I’ve ever presaved is out today. Charli just cooked this one different. So much grit, grace & skin in the game.”
“I speak for all of us when I say it’s an honour to be moved, changed and gagged by her work. There is NO ONE like this bitch. Brava and welcome ‘Brat’.”
Charli has also opened up about the backstories of some other tracks off ‘Brat’. ‘Talk Talk’, she shared, was inspired by nearly following now-fiancée George Daniel of The 1975 to the bathrooms at the NME Awards.
“We were not together, but we were definitely very into each other,” she explained. “We were at the NME Awards, we were both sat on different tables, and we were like texting each other, but we weren’t hanging out. But we were both looking over at each other – it was very like, one of us would look and the other one would look away, and then just vice versa.
“You know when you just feel like someone is watching you, you can feel a hole burning in the back of your head or something like that,” she continued. “It was very much that moment.”
In a four-star review of ‘Brat’, NME wrote: “On the self-described “club record”, XCX offers pure party girl hedonism. Percolating beats, brash synths, left-field production and vocal lines that flit between bratty quips or honest one-liners.”
“With ‘Brat’, XCX demonstrates that going her own way will always sound pretty good,” it added.
Meanwhile, Lorde is teasing her fourth album. In an update on her Instagram, she wrote: “If the tools do not exist you are spiritually obliged to create them”, along with variations on the word ‘L4’.