This Sunday, many will celebrate a man who rose again three days after his death. But today, we celebrate a woman who wrote and recorded a full song three days after her album announcement. Charli XCX has released the first cut from her quarantine album, how i’m feeling now, “forever,†exactly 72 hours after the Zoom meeting where she announced the project. It’s a muted, somewhat dissonant track that would sound right at home tacked on the end of Charli, her last full-length. As promised, she shared the instrumental with fans before the release, along with demos and lyrics, and had them vote on the image that would inspire three separate covers by musicians Seth Bogart, Regards Coupables and Caroline Polachek. Market research teams are shaking! According to Charli’s Twitter, executive producers A.G. Cook and BJ Burton worked on the song, and 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady had a hand in it too. In the screenshot of her conversation with Burton, she says she wanted the song to come out “either on April 10th or possibly more realistically on April 13th.†So she’s ahead of schedule too, as if just making anything during quarantine wasn’t enough.
Update, April 17: A mere eight days later, Charli has made a music video! In the throes of production for how i’m feeling now, the musician put together her first quarantine visual for the project, compiled from fan-sent clips. “this video is made up of your clips of the moments/people/places/things in life you wish to cherish forever,†she tweeted. “thank you so much for helping me make this video, it wouldn’t have been possible without you.â€