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Taylor Swift may have captured the charts, but Charli XCX captured the zeitgeist
The Eras superstar released six last-minute new variants of her new album to pip Charli XCX to the No 1 album and break her own record, but there is only one winner when it comes to making pop fun
Even Swifties seemed to raise their eyebrows: the top tweet under Taylor Nation’s post announcing the variants, from an “all things Swift” account with the username @allswifted, simply reads “im tired.” To me, the most concerning aspect of Swift “wanting [success] more than anyone”, as Del Rey put it, is the idea that her commercial drive is outpacing the meticulous songcraft and image control that made records like 2012’s Red and 2010’s Speak Now era-defining classics. When putting together its follow-up, she might do well to follow Charli’s example: Brat is an unapologetic return to underground electronic music styles after Crash’s flirtation with mainstream pop trends, and yet it is her biggest commercial and critical success ever.
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