Excited for the video! even though I've decided that Used To Know Me is the weakest song on the album
I also don't see enough love for Every Rule. It seems to be the song fans love the least and will end up being the least streamed as Twice is slowly catching up to it. I'm a Sucker for the Twin Peaks-lite production (and love anything even remotely Vaporwavey) and OPN is a great producer. The lyricism is simple but I like that she wrote about the complexities and the guilt of falling in love with someone else while being in a relationship. It feels important to the "story" of the album.
Charli was absolutely phenomenal live! As expected. Everyone was bopping and dropping- she sounded amazing and I love how interactive with the crowd she is. It's always a good time to get boozy and bop to Charli and she's just brilliant at getting the crowd going. I love that she was serving choreography, but I did prefer the Charli tour. There's just something magnetic about her jumping around the stage dancing and losing herself in her music. Vroom Vroom live is heaven. The gays go off! I think it just sounds so clunky production wise. I love bits and pieces of the writing on it, but it just sounds like it should've been tossed. Though I'm all down for her getting a smash whatever the song is! Love that she shot the video in Colorado it seems. I think my gripe with every rule is that it's so shameless in the most cringe way possible. Specifically the lyrics, it sounds so toxic and abusive without any self awareness or accountability. I'm all for Charli singing about how shit she's been (White Mercedes, Blame it On Your Love, etc.) but this one is beyond tone deaf and it's just embarrassing to hear.
This is such a strange notion to me. Sometimes storytellers tell stories that aren’t a neat and tidy morality tale? The need for self-reflection and an explicit “hey this is bad!” is pretty limiting. (Kinda weird you require shame in this story, to be honest.) I’m getting early Lana lyrics controversy vibes nn. But fair enough, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it.
I think she has a lot of songs that aren't "neat and tidy" with morality that narrate her relationships, I think it's her presentation of the narrative itself and how she constructed it. And it's not that she needs to be shameful, it's that the situation she's talking about so brazenly is just something that's deeply cringe and makes me want to turn my head the other way. And that's okay? I just don't think this particular take is it.
Also, Sorry If I Hurt You feels like a direct follow-up to Every Rule. In my eyes, they’re both filled with immense pain and regret, but an admission that you’re doing a partner no favors by staying with them when your heart belongs to someone else.
For sure. If it’s not vibing for you, that’s OK. It just made me think of how art criticism has lost a lot of nuance these days because too many don’t seem to understand portrayal of something bad is not the same as endorsing something bad. My hackles were raised!
I feel like “Every Rule” is written pretty clearly as how she was feeling in the moment and not necessarily her being reflective of it or glorifying it, and being like wow, love that for us, if that makes sense. I also think its placement is very intentional and offers up the flipside to “Used to Know Me”
I understand that and agree especially with a lot of other media. I just don't think the portrayal itself is strong. It's just not that captivating. I feel like Emotional is a good example of the same narrative being put together in a more well constructed way talking about the same subject matter that gives more heightened emotion and depth than Every Rule on the situation. Though it does sound like Every Rule is a follow up to that story. Can't win em all babes!
Beg For You has the edge for me somehow, I'm a sucker for the hook in the chorus. Also, it has this iconic performance