Charli xcx has recently inaugurated a new era with the release of ‘Rock Music’, a daring but short song, which has not thrilled her audience. Charli already shares a second single, ‘SS26’, which promises to reconcile her with the public.
The acronym ‘SS26’ responds to the phrase ‘Spring Summer 2026’ and the song follows the line of ‘Rock Music’ but is based on a more developed and accessible melody. With a less disruptive structure than that of ‘Rock Music’, ‘SS26’ affirms Charli xcx’s rock reinvention in a song that points to the timelessness of the classics in melody and instrumentation.
The lyrics had already been published by Charli herself on her Substack profile, where from time to time she shares some reflections in the form of an article. The text of ‘SS26’ seems like an ironic and dystopian critique of the world of entertainment and contemporary society, taking the concept of ‘Rock Music’ further.
The text, loaded with irony, is situated in an apocalyptic context (“When the world is gonna end no hope for any of it”) to construct a cynical portrait of the contemporary world and its obsession with celebrities, fame and the cult of personal image.
The lyrics include criticism of the superficiality of fashion (“Yeah we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell”) and the culture of cancellation (“I was hacked / It was taken out of context obviously”), as well as the logic of the obligatory apology published to get out of trouble, represented in the banal image of an “apology written in the cell phone notes blog.”
Among the most striking verses, the one in which the artist alludes to the use of identity as a commercial branding tool stands out (“Think my politics could work as a press strategy / And my heritage could give me quite the USP”), in a reflection on how the personal becomes a marketing strategy. Although perhaps the most notable is the one in which it is stated that “not even music, cinema or fashion will be able to save us.” For Charli, not only is the dance floor dead, but so is the culture itself.
The contrast between the tenderness and vulnerability that the melody gives off and the rawness of the instrumentation, which includes layers of fuzzy guitars, raw basses and at the end also a certain hyperpop patina in production, is not only deliberate, but is explained in the lyrics, too. Charli, gutting the system from within
