Charli XCX Has All the Right Moves, 'Baby'
Music

Charli XCX Has All the Right Moves, 'Baby'

Charli XCX's fifth studio album, Crash, is just days away from being released and the hype is growing. From the lead single, "Good Ones," to the all-star trio consisting of Charli, Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens she assembled for "New Shapes" and most recently her collab with Rina Sawayama, on "Beg for You," the artist's latest era is in full effect. Just ahead of the album's full release, she's giving us one last glimpse of what's to come with "Baby."

One of the first songs she apparently wrote for the album, Crash's latest offering sees Charli taking a sensual turn with a song devoted to "great sex." Teaming up with producer and long-time collaborator, Justin Raisen, "Baby" leans further into the records overall 80s disco vibes with sparkling synths and funky guitar riffs that, honestly, sounds like it would fit right at home Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia.

“I was working on it with Justin Raisen, and we’d done a lot together for my first ever album, True Romance. So it kind of felt cyclical to go back and with him again on what is my final record in my deal with Atlantic,” Charli XCX tells Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "Obviously so much has changed, and, this song, it was kind of the foundation of the vibe of the album. It’s probably the most sexy song I’ve ever made. It’s about sex and sexuality and having good sex and just feeling yourself essentially. I know that that’s the tone. I knew that that was the tone I wanted to carry across for the entire record. This kind of hyper-sexualized, feminine power zone was where I was feeling myself going, and 'Baby' was the genesis of this."

The single arrives alongside an Imogene Strauss and Luke Orlando-directed music video that sees Charli XCX bust out some serious choreography. “I wanted to challenge myself on the choreo for this song, which was really, really tough," Charli also told Lowe. "I have so much respect for dancers, professional dancers, anyone who communicates emotion through dance. It is so hard and challenging, but so rewarding.”

Check out the official music video for "Baby" off Charli XCX's forthcoming album, Crash, out March 18.

Photography: Emily Lipson