Rina Sawayama, the Sapphic singer who gained popularity during the pandemic, recently teamed up with Charli XCX for the new collab, “Beg for You.” The track might be a hit for club-goers on the d-floor but the message isn’t so upbeat: it’s about an abandoned lover begging for the person they love to stay.
“Beg for You” is the teaser for Charli XCX’s new album Crash, to be released on 18th of March, 2022. If the hook sounds familiar it’s because it’s a sample of “Cry for You,” the banger by September!
This is the first time Charli’s joined forces with Rina Sawayama, who released her debut album in 2020. Since then, Rina’s become quite the queen of collabs, even teaming up with Elton John and Lady Gaga.
Charli has made a living out of riding the pop train and “Beg for You” is no different. That’s my only criticism: it’s been done before. It isn’t just the September hook that’s got me seeing deja vu, I can hear an array of classic club tracks when I listen to the song. Is it just a case of “if the recipe is good why change it?” Or is it too safe?
Rina Sawayama, on the other hand, is very unique when she goes solo. While she reminds me of a cross between Britney Spears and the metal my friends listened to in highschool, because every artist does take inspiration from others that came before them (even if subconsciously), she offers something fresh. She isn’t Britney Spears, or Korn, she’s Rina Sawayama.
Rina Sawayama was 30 when her first album, Sawayama, was released. Her age is an advantage: she’s lived through the tides of pop since the ’90s, her music reflects that, and she sings from a more nuanced point of view due to life experience. Kind of like how Fiona Apple’s massive comeback with Fetch the Bolt Cutters in 2020 was a more refined, impactful, delightfully bitter mood than what she did in the ’90s. As I approach my thirties, I relate to the desire to screw politeness and just say “STFU!”
Interestingly, Charli XCX is critical of the concept of “selling out,” as someone who went big almost immediately. She spoke to Rolling Stone about it: “I’ve always been interested in the idea of what a “sellout” is in modern-day pop music and if it even exists. I’ve been signed to a major label since I was 16. I think I’ve had quite an untypical major-label-artist journey, so it’s interesting to operate within that framework.”
Is the genre static in “Beg for You” merely tongue-in-cheek? “I suppose this record [Crash] and the imagery is partially a comment on that [selling out]. It’s also partially a comment on what authenticity is. I think artists feel they need to really prove that they wrote their own songs, that they direct their own music videos, that they are the brain behind everything. As I got older, I began to care less and less about that because I know I can write a great pop song and I know I can communicate my vision.”
Perhaps Charli XCX isn’t concerned with “being different,” a pressure that looms over artists, often hindering their creative process. Charli has worked on the need to “prove herself,” which would simultaneously be easier being signed to a major record, she’s established, but also harder, big things are expected from her.
“I think that’s [growing out of the mindset of needing to prove yourself] been my mission station since post-Sucker, really when I began working with Sophie and A.G. Cook,” she said. “From that point on, until now and probably beyond, it’s stayed the same. It’s hard. It’s not super tangible. Also, I’m constantly changing my mind about what I think, so that’s not very helpful either. I felt like that was beginning to become kind of like an expected sound from me, or an expected way that I did things. The reason making Crash felt so right is because I don’t think people expected me to do that. I always feel most myself when I’m challenging people and maybe sometimes confusing people.”
