Tracking Charli XCX’s obsession with cars
Any seasoned Charli XCX fan will have noticed that her discography is littered with car references. To mark the release of her new single ‘Speed Drive’, the latest sonic instance of her preoccupation with automobiles, we’re taking a look back at the hyper-pop star’s discography to track how an increasing number of car-inspired tunes has accompanied her rising popularity.
Charli’s first-ever car reference remains her most iconic. In 2016, she released her second EP titled Vroom Vroom. The release also marked her first noteworthy collaboration with Scottish producer Sophie. The EP’s stand-out song was its title track, the futuristic ‘Vroom Vroom’, which began with Charli’s iconic “Let’s ride”. It’s a hedonistic track about driving fast and looking hot.
Hyper-electronic and agitated, Charli sings of lavender Lamborghinis, bubblegum pink Ferraris and “speeding like Alonso”. Ahead of its time, the track gained a mixed reception but has since become a seminal release within the hyper-pop genre and a fan favourite.
A year later, she released a mixtape titled Pop 2. Produced by A.G. Cook, founder of the defining hyper-pop label PC Music, the record widened Charli’s musical interest in cars. The record opens with ‘Backseat’, which features Carly Rae Jepsen. It’s a softer, more melancholic take on the theme than ‘Vroom Vroom’, finding her all alone in the backseat. Pop 2 featured two more car-related tracks, ‘Unlock It’ and ‘Porsche’.
Her next full-length release, the self-titled Charli in 2019, featured just one car reference with the track ‘White Mercedes’, which includes a metaphor of the artist as an unattainable car, a white Mercedes. The track, and the whole album, saw her take a step back from her experimental electronic to focus on pure pop.
Charli’s most recent album, Crash, pushed further into this realm, a pure pop album. The record represented her selling out, marking her last release under her contract with Atlantic Records. Cars were a huge part of the album’s themes and marketing. The album cover sees a bloody, bikini-wearing Charli on a cracked car windshield.
On the title track, ‘Crash’, Charli sings about a car crash as a metaphor for self-destruction. ‘Move Me’ contains a similar comparison, as she sings, “I already know I’m letting go of something sacred, drive us off the road, I take a good thing and I break it”. On Crash, despite its marketing surrounding commercialism and sell-outs, Charli’s car imagery deviates from hedonistic connotations. Instead, her softer sound is reflected by softer themes, with the car crash specifically used as a symbol for her sabotaging herself and her relationships.
Bringing us to the present day, Charli’s most recent single, ‘Speed Drive’, sees her return to the fun and fast depiction of cars from her early music. The song marks her contribution to Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Barbie, which definitely influenced the song’s sound and themes. She samples ‘Mickey’ by Toni Basil, amending the lyrics to, “Ah, ah, Barbie, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind”.
The glitchy track is punctuated by playful synths, a rattling bass, and even a sample of a car revving its engine, which leads into the chorus. Charli’s auto-tuned vocals sing about wearing cute clothes and running red lights with the top down. ‘Speed Drive’ sees her preoccupation with cars come full circle as she leans back into hyper-pop soundscapes and hedonistic commercial lyrics. It’s the perfect fit for the plastic, pink-fuelled Barbie.
With music often characterised by fast beats, experimentation with machine-like sounds, and themes of materialism and superficiality, car references are rife in Charli’s discography because they fit so perfectly within her universe.
