Picking two artists who exist in the twitter bottom x Angel venn diagram fandom meant the track was never really going to get much traction outside of that sphere. It's done decent numbers and it slaps, but for a project that's supposedly about pushing Chorli to the very limits of pop or.. whatever, it felt sort of weirdly redundant picking two besties who sell even less than she does, when she could've easily had someone truly surprising and subversive to guest on it.
I will say about New Shapes, since returning to the office, my straight co-worker would play Triple J in Australia and they'd play that song every morning. He would even sing along. So I guess it did that, if anything.
I feel like she gave up on big collaborations after "Blame It On Your Love" still didn't do anything when Lizzo was rather popular at that time.
I’ve heard it on Triple J too and thought it was weird. I still think of that station as being what it was years ago - they wouldn’t have touched something like New Shapes with a ten foot pole back then! I normally love how collaborative Charli is but I think I would enjoy New Shapes a lot more if it was solo. Chris and Caroline bring nothing to it for me, to have 3 vocalists on a track and for it to do as little as New Shapes does - what was the point?
I don't know if Lizzo is a great example considering she was only seemingly able to get retroactive hits / none of her new material at that time did anything.
I love triple j's on-going support of Charli, tbh. "Good Ones" got a lot of play on the station as well.
New Shapes is fine, but that chorus is pretty much a non-event nn. I like the small production changes from Charli's verse to Chris's to Caroline's and I sort of wish the song had leaned even more into that, how these different reactions to love can create different sonic shapes too (I love the added choral effect on Chris' pre-chorus and the slight string element on Caroline's). As it is, it's kind of too confined and predictable for its own good, lacking that sense of adventure and playfulness that mark their collective best works. I sort of wish they'd gone with a more puzzle box type production that constantly morphs and changes throughout the song - sort of like AG and Charli's 911 remix or Tinashe's 333. I get that this era is supposed to be more classic and conventional in its songwriting but it's a lost opportunity to not have more fun with it and bring their different styles and sounds more into focus, which they've merged so expertly in the past.
Getting a Lottie's prediction in Yellowjackets vibe I couldn't find another clip of it so just ignore the rest of the tweet
