Charli XCX has suggested making a Lou Reed-inspired album with Clairo.
The pop pair recently teamed up to perform ‘Sofia’ from the latter’s 2019 debut studio album ‘Immunity’ at Laneway Festival in Melbourne, Australia on Valentine’s Day (14.02.25).
And Charli has now hinted they could make a guitar-based record like the classic rock legend.
In a video that has circulated online, she said of their duet: “I really had fun doing it and it got me thinking, what if we made a record with guitars or strings or both. Lou Reed era maybe, I dunno just saying.”
Charli teasing a potential guitar record with Clairo – who also featured on her 2019 track ‘February 2017’ with Yaeji – comes after her producers revealed the ‘360’ singer might go “anti-Brat” on her next album.
The Grammy winning dance-pop star dominated 2024 with her acclaimed LP ‘Brat’, and her top collaborators spilled their conversations with Charli about what’s next, including potentially doing “the complete opposite thing again”.
Charli’s lead producer A.G. Cook told Grammy.com when asked if they had talked about new material: “Not truly, it’s just loose chatting about things. [For Charli] the genesis of things is really about having an idea but then being very impulsive. I think you need a certain amount of space to do that.”
Co-writer and producer Finn Keane (formerly known as Easyfun), said: “Chatting to Charli now, there is a desire in her to do the complete opposite thing again, which is very in keeping with her ethos. Some of the conversations we’re having and music we’ve been playing around with the last couple of months have been completely the opposite. I love that spirit. It’s the iconoclastic impulse to rebuild something completely different, to show that you actually could do this other thing, this whole other side of your artistry.”
He added: “It’s been really funny, in the months after finishing the remix album, any other musical discussion that has taken place has been kind of anti-Brat. I doubt that’ll stick, but that’s been a really interesting thing to observe and makes me very optimistic and excited about [what’s next].”
Charli won three Grammy Awards for ‘Brat’ – Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Recording Package, while the track ‘Von Dutch’ took Best Dance Pop Recording.
The album’s campaign included the star-studded ‘Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat’ remix album, featuring Lorde, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Bon Iver and Julian Casablancas.