She had us in the morning, I’m not gonna lie. It may have taken until 5pm, but Charli XCX just made good on her promise to release “i finally understand” today. Two days ago, the “Boys” singer tweeted a photo chosen by fans to be the basis of the single’s cover art with the announcement that the song would drop on the 7th of May.
my new song “i finally understand” drops may 7th thanks for helping choose this image, which will be the basis of the artworks artworks will be created by allison zuckerman, @Polygon1993 & @jonemmony i’ll be on insta live at 12pm pst to share music / feelings lol pic.twitter.com/nwHYGXYi0N
— Charli (@charli_xcx) May 5, 2020
From late last night into the early hours of the morning, Charli kept us on tenterhooks with a reminder of her new album’s imminent release date and a quick run-down of its completion: six tracks have either been mixed or are being mixed, and another three or four are in the works.
6 songs mixed / in the process of being mixed. 3 or 4 other song ideas floating around. Spoke w AG today and we both feel like doing an 11 track album could be cool…
— Charli (@charli_xcx) May 6, 2020
Despite all this activity there’d still been no word on “i finally understand”. That was until this afternoon, when Charli confirmed the track’s release and shared Allison Zuckerman’s reworking of the photo for the cover art. It’s hard to say whether this newest song of hers was counted in the six mixed tracks, but even a cynic’s punt still puts around a dozen tunes from the pop songstress on our horizon. Not bad for an album recorded entirely whilst under quarantine.
i finally understand drops 5pm uk time/9am la time 2day 1st official artwork by allison zuckerman produced by @palmistrybeats & @agcook404 co written/recorded by myself i’m talking w @zanelowe on @applemusic when it drops tune in angels pic.twitter.com/3PxxRYy0ds — Charli (@charli_xcx) May 7, 2020
Providing a cool down from the climactic bombast of previous singles “forever” and “claws”, “i finally understand” is a much more minimalist affair. Charli’s recognition that “this feeling that I’ve found/Might kill me, put me in the ground” still matches the earnest heart-wrenching found in “forever”. But where the fuzzed-out backdrop to A. G. Cook’s previous production softened the deepest cuts Charli had to offer, on the two’s latest effort (joined by Palmistry this time) there’s nowhere left to hide. Listen to the song’s official audio below, with an alternate version of the photo artwork created by Polygon1993.
“i finally understand”, “claws”, and “forever” are all set to appear on Charli’s forthcoming (literally) homemade album how i’m feeling now, slated for release on the 15th of May. As for the titles of the rest of the tracklist we’ll have to wait and see – not least since the names of these new songs are subject to the whim of her fans. Though don’t let “i finally understand” distract you from another piece of new intel Charli released today. Listen to a clip from demo “7 years” below:
“7 years” update from @agcook404 pic.twitter.com/8eSrKcIo6x
— Charli (@charli_xcx) May 7, 2020
