No One Lasts Forever | Music, Fashion, Film by Charli xcx (Initial Thoughts)
- Joshua Miller
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Video Description
Hi everyone!
Charli xcx is back with her eighth studio album, Music, Fashion, Film, and after my first couple of listens, I have a lot of thoughts, specifically on how it approaches the subject of oblivion and letting go.
In this video, we discuss initial expectations going into the album, the context that led up to it within Charli’s career, the song that jumps out to me the most, and what this album says about how we should treat pop eras.
After the cultural explosion of BRAT, I feel like Charli xcx is using Music, Fashion, Film to address a truth that the past two years have taught her: no one lasts forever.
I love this album’s theatricality and how it feels like an expansion of the larger persona Charli has spent the last decade building.
So, while this video doesn’t contain my final thoughts or a rating, I wanted to create it as a way of processing an album I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
As always, make sure to let me know in the comments what you think and if there’s a song on Music, Fashion, Film that jumps out to you the way “No One Lasts Forever” does to me.
But until then, make sure to have a wonderful day, and thank you so much for watching.
Video Transcript
After my first listen of “Rock Music” by Charli xcx, I, like most Angels, was really confused. I had heard rumors about Charli xcx's next album being a rock album, and while I was excited for that, that wasn't really what I thought we were going to get.
Coming off of the large success of BRAT, I felt like Charli xcx, for her following album, really had one of two options. The first would be to do a satirical BRAT 2 that is so directly a sequel to BRAT in a way that it kind of mocks customer expectations and is a commentary on the expectations of pop stardom. And the other option I saw for her was doing a complete 180 and doing something that's so different from BRAT, like a rock album, that it can't directly be compared to BRAT. And it kind of just serves as her trolling audiences' expectations by reminding them that she is Charli xcx, and she's never going to do what you think she's going to do.
But instead, the album that we got, Music, Fashion, Film, sits somewhere in the middle, and I'm really, really happy with it the more that I continue to listen to it. While Music, Fashion, Film has rock influences that you can definitely pick up in its instrumentation, I feel like it's its theatricality and self-declaration that really make this album feel like it's derivative of rock music as an art form.
But what I'm interested in doing in today's video is discussing my favorite theme that's discussed on this album: the idea that no one lasts forever.
But first, hi everyone, I'm Joshua Miller, and welcome to my YouTube channel. I create videos on fashion, pop music, and Pokémon so that way you can live with style, confidence, and enthusiasm. And because style is my favorite subject, today I'm going to be talking about Charli xcx's newest album, Music, Fashion, Film. So, without further ado, let's get into it.
In attempting to understand this album, I think it's important to start with the artistic context that led up to it, which leads me to want to begin with Charli xcx's mockumentary film, The Moment.
In this movie, Charli xcx deals with navigating the fear of letting the massive moment of BRAT Summer go to the point where she says yes to every single opportunity until it eventually destroys her. And all of this tension builds up to a monologue where Charli xcx realizes that trying to hold on to the moment is what's been destroying her this entire summer, and the only way that she can truly move on is by letting BRAT Summer go.
And while I was in the theater watching the film wrap up, I just felt like it was the perfect conclusion to the BRAT era. But little did I know that this movie was actually kind of functioning as a thematic backdoor for Music, Fashion, Film.
Which brings me to wanting to talk about one of my favorite songs on this album, the closing track, “No One Lasts Forever.”
On the song, Charli xcx addresses this feeling by telling the story of how, at a party, she was talking to a French girl about philosophy, and she eventually realized that nothing and no one is going to last forever.
However, despite the fear that an epiphany of this weight can often invoke, to me, I honestly find it to be really enlightening if you interpret it within the broader context of Charli xcx's career. Because of the massive scale of BRAT and BRAT Summer, it can very easily be the kind of thing that can bog an artist down.
But I think that by acknowledging the fact that no one and nothing lives forever, you're kind of free from that feeling. You no longer have to hold yourself to these unrealistic pressures or expectations. Because if whatever you create isn't going to last forever, you might as well focus on making the thing that's the most impactful right now. And I trust that once it ends, something better is going to come after it.
Which is why I find the closing monologue of this song to just be so emotionally compelling. I just really love the idea that even if an artist creates something that lives forever, they, as the artist, don't get to experience that.
And I don't know about you, but I personally found this to be really inspiring, and there's a lot that I could learn from this. As a former gifted student and someone who often tries to cope with their mortality through wanting to create something that lives forever, it was really strange having to confront the fact that I am not going to live forever through listening to this album.
And I feel like this is something that Charli xcx wants us to take away from it. On the last chorus, it switches from “no one's going to last forever” to “you're not going to last forever.” And I just love how she's speaking directly to the listener here. That after everything that she's learned over the last couple of years, you, as the listener, should not be trying to live forever, and that in accepting the fact that you aren't going to, fear doesn't come. Instead, freedom comes.
So, as we all continue to reflect on and interpret Music, Fashion, Film, I hope that we'll all appreciate its message that sometimes the best thing that you can do is move forward. Instead of trying to make BRAT Summer happen forever, we can instead choose to move forward and make the most of the present moment and let it help us ascend into our highest and most alive selves.
After listening to this album, I just feel more free to create the things that I genuinely want to create and not bogged down by the pressure of how long they're going to last. Instead, I can now focus on my mission of helping other people live with style, confidence, and enthusiasm instead of always worrying about metrics or the longevity of the things that I create.
Because no matter the scale or success of the things that I create, I am not going to last forever. And I think that it's time I start trying to accept that.
So, there you guys have my biggest takeaway from Charli xcx's newest album, Music, Fashion, Film. Make sure to let me know in the comments what you guys think of this album. Like the Swiftologist just said, I definitely think that it's an album that's really exciting to think about just because the ideas that it brings to pop music are so interesting and so important right now.
And also, make sure to let me know if there are any songs on this album that really stick out to you the way that “No One Lasts Forever” does to me.
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