Crash (album)

## Singles from *CRASH*

1. "Good Ones"
Released: September 2, 2021
2. "New Shapes"
Released: November 4, 2021
3. "Beg for You"
Released: January 27, 2022
4. "Baby"
Released: March 1, 2022
5. "Every Rule" (Promotional)
Released: March 14, 2022
6. "Used to Know Me"
Released: April 15, 2022

## Alternate covers

Deluxe cover

China exclusive cover

***Crash*** (stylized in all caps and originally titled ***Sorry If I Hurt You***) is the fifth studio album by Charli XCX. It was officially released released on March 18, 2022, by Asylum and Atlantic Records. On the theme of this album, Charli has described as a "Janet album", a "poptastic album", and an "evil era".

## Background

### 2019

The first time Charli talked about this album, originally expected to come out shortly after the 2019 release of *Charli* (album), was on the 19th of September 2019, in an interview with music publication *FADER*. Charli said: *"I'm not supposed to say this, I'm supposed to be like, in it, 'this album (Charli), stream it, buy it', but I'm like, already thinking about the next one, it's done, I'm onto the next level"*. On October 14th of that same year she said she was already working on it.

On November 25th, 2019, she said her current plans for the coming year were to make two new albums (the second one being the sixth one, that if it wasn't going to come out on 2020, would've come out in 2021).

### 2020

During January and February 2020, Charli shared Instagram Stories of herself in the studio with a few different producers, including Patrik Berger and Justin Raisen, both of whom had worked on Charli's debut album True Romance in the past, and her executive producer A. G. Cook. Deaton Chris Anthony could be seen as well. This album was originally going to be the first of two albums to be released in 2020, the other one being an album recorded with A. G. Cook and SOPHIE that was supposed to be recorded in four weeks.

In March, recording sessions for the album were cancelled because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Charli decided to delay the release of the album and spontaneously started working on her fourth studio album *How I'm Feeling Now*. Work on this album started from Charli's home on April 3rd and lasted until shortly before its release date of May 15th.

Charli first talked about "Janet album" theme on April 6th when she posted a screenshot of a conversation with A. G. Cook. A message of hers could be seen, saying: *"And I wanted to do Janet album in September into quicker album in December",* meaning that she originally wanted to release the "Janet album" in September and a "quicker", more impromptu album in December of the same year.  On the 12th of June, Charli hinted that she was back at working on the "Janet album" again now that *How I'm Feeling Now* was released. She later shared that the "Janet album" would be her last album under her current label.

### 2021

During the recordings for the album on Charli's house, singer Caroline Polachek was staying at her house.
On March 13th, 2021, she stated via *TikTok* that the album will be very "poptastic".  Days later, on March 19th, Charli performed new songs for the first time on a virtual show for Bandsintown, allegedly called "Don't Think Twice" and *What You Want* (later confirmed to be "New Shapes").  After the show, she did an interview where she again referred to the album as poptastic and stated that she was feeling very creative.

On August 2nd, 2021 (Charli's 29th birhtday) she finally announced the first single for the album on all her social medias, titled "Good Ones" , including the single cover and a link to pre-order it.

Since May 2021, she started to rebranded this album as an "evil era". During the promotion of the album, while the name of the project wasn't revealed yet, Charli teased it by posting pictures from the 1996 horror film *Crash*.  On August 15th, 2021, after the announcement of the first single for the album, she posted a picture of a grave on Twitter, which had her own name written with the death date as "March 18 2022". Which is the release date for the album.  That same day, she posted a behind-the-scenes with a photoshoot of that grave, using a snippet of "Good Ones",  The grave would be part of "Good Ones"' music video once it was released. It was heavily implied that the release date would be March 22nd, 2022, because after the release of "Good Ones", she explained that the album might be released on early 2022.

On September 30th, Charli said for *ABC Australia* that she could be releasing a new single before 2021 ends.  Then, it was confirmed on October 6th, the day before the debut TV performance of "Good Ones", that the mixes for the album were being finished and that a second single was coming soon.  On October 9th, Charli uploaded a picture to Instagram Stories with a file that read "tracklist", meaning the tracklisting for the album was most likely complete, the picture also revealed that the length of the album ends in 6 minutes.

On November 1st, she first tweeted that she will be revealing secrets about the album that week,  5 hours later, she name the people who will be on the album: A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Deaton Chris Anthony, Lotus IV, Christine and the Queens, Caroline Polachek, Oscar Holter, Digital Farm Animals, Rina Sawayama, Ian Kirkpatrik, Jason Evigan, Justin Raisen, SadPony, Ariel Rechtshaid, Ilya, Oneohtrixpointnever, Mike Wise and Jon Shave.  Oscar Holter was already confirmed as a producer for the album with the single "Good Ones", while a collaboration with Rina Sawayama was already being teased since 2019, although according to both artists there were different attempts at a collaboration, the song ended up being "Beg For You", produced by Digital Farm Animals. And a collaboration with Caroline and Christine with production from Deaton was also being teased a couple days before the announcement, which ended up being the track "New Shapes!, that serves as the second single for the album and it was released on November 4th, 2021.

On November 4th, an hour before the release of the second single, the album was officially announced on all Charli's social media, along the announcement of a tour titled *Crash The Live Tour* and a link to pre-save the album.  It was also announced that the album will be 12 songs and 33 minutes long.  Later on the same day, Charli went live on *TikTok* and shared new snippets of new tracks, including a track called "Baby", which only a small snippet was known about the song in the past, a track that is thought to be called "On Repeat!, a snippet of "Beg For You" and three unknown snippets.

On December 19th, 2021, Charli shared an Instagram post with the caption "2022 sneak peak...", which featured multiple pictures related to work for the album cicle, including pictures of photoshoot and recording behind the scenes, a conversation with Rina about their collaboration, and a video of what it seemed to be Charli practicing with background dancers for the track *Baby*.

### 2022

During very late 2021 and early January 2022, Charli kept sharing the snippets she teased on *TikTok*, most notably, the tracks *Beg For You* and *Baby*. On January 4th, Charli shared a short snippet of what later turned out to be behind-the-scenes footage of a music video for the song Baby.  On January 20th, it was confirmed via iTunes that the fifth track of the album will be 2 minutes and 48 seconds long, which was later confirmed to be *Beg For You*.  On that same day, Charli revealed the title and a studio snippet of her collaboration with Rina Sawayama "Beg For You". A single cover and a photoshoot behind-the-scenes was also shown, making it most likely to be the third single of the album.  The song was released as a single on January 27th, along a visualizer. On February 21st, it was confirmed that a deluxe version of the album was going to be released on the same week as the original.

During the Instagram livestream on March 23, XCX announced that the deluxe version of the album was coming on the next day.

## Singles

1. "Good Ones": Released as the main single for the album on September 2nd, 2021, along a music video.
2. "New Shapes": Featuring Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens, the track was released on November 4th, 2021. The music video was released on November 12th, 2021.
3. "Beg for You": Featuring Rina Sawayama and released on January 27th, 2022.
4. "Baby": Released as the fourth single on March 1st, 2022.
5. "Used to Know Me": Released as the fifth and final single on April 15th, 2022.

### Promotional Singles

1. "Every Rule": Released as the first promotional single on March 14th, 2022.

Good OnesNew ShapesBeg for YouBabyUsed to Know Me
## Theme

On April 8th, 2020, Charli told a fan via Zoom that this album is influenced by Janet Jackson's music, an artist that has often been mentioned by producers under the PC Music label like A.G. and EasyFun as an inspiration. Then, on April 21st, she told Stereogum that this was her most polished album ever, both musically and aesthetically, and that she was listening to a lot of Janet's music at the moment. She stated that the album would be a quite different turn for her musically. On May 5th, she stated that it was going to be her most "pop" album yet, and that she wanted the music videos to be very theatrical, even mentioned the idea of her playing different characters in them.

On October 29th, 2020, she explained that at the time, there were still a lot of Janet Jackson influence on the album, but it is not entirely inspired from her anymore, and there is now other influences.

On May 23th, 2021, she stated that the album was "for the True Romance angels"  and that she wanted to have a song that is "Stay Away 2.0".  Then, on July 8th, Charli ranted about that she was very into songs that she didn't write.  During this month, Charli started to post a lot of tweets and pictures of Instagram insinuating that this album will be her "evil era".  Including one that says: "tip for new artists: sell your soul for money and fame".

Charli added on the theme of the album on October 2nd, 2021, saying for *InStyle*: *"It's kind of all about sex and sexuality,"... "It can make people dance and cry at the same time. It's a vibe."*  Later, on October 9th, she also explained for MET Magazine that she's "going full circle" with this album, and that the album is similar in it's inspiration to the 80s the same way *True Romance* is, making both her first and last album with Atlantic Records follow a similar theme.  The artists that have inspired the album are: Prince, Janet Jackson, Martika and T'Pau, among others.

## Track listing

### Scrapped tracks

> *You can find CRASH outtake list here.*
>
>

## Gallery

### Cover Photoshoot by Terrence O'Connor

* Look 1
* Look 2
* Look 3
* Look 4
* Look 5
* Look 6
* BTS

ScanAlt crop, tagged

PreviewPreview

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61409OxvOEg
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1426986226624602113
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvMgUFv3tJg
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1183781203478011905
5. ↑ https://uproxx.com/pop/charli-xcx-two-albums-2020/
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1213268673961644034
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1213270613260935170
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1215468042072788992
9. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1216944593993981952
10. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1218279248198283264
11. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1225598363942506496
12. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1250467338475929600
13. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1247318880739098631
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1271478072705863680
15. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1271490484645408769
16. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1431035900302176256
17. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1370907322827075596
18. ↑ https://twitter.com/unlocklt/status/1373079791088246788
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/ambixcx/status/1373084051943358467
20. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1373093203197501447
21. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1422212028362641415
22. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1454470855879282693
23. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CVqGiSaqHfb/
24. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CRrJ9Bgnl-F/
25. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1426986226624602113/photo/1
26. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1426992004043575306
27. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1440361149279600642
28. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1443619279660883968
29. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CUpwLWJAtv\_/
30. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1446876963872944130?t=PLHDA99zqIh58D2QX1jHsQ&s=19
31. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1455149371570413585
32. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1455220063829696531
33. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1456290695170379778
34. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1456305764818161675
35. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456307634886303744
36. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456307634886303744
37. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456372644664721419
38. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456372849409658881
39. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456373434926178305
40. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456373557781569541
41. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456374796472705030
42. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1456374898780147723
43. ↑ …2022 sneak peak… - Instagram
44. ↑ SOON - CHARLI XCX UPDATES on Twitter.
45. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1484177830447665152
46. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@rinasawayamaofficial/video/7055361921012256006
47. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/music/Beg-For-You-feat-Rina-Sawayama-7054888818105436162
48. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@charlixcx/video/7055359629903203631
49. ↑ https://fxtwitter.com/fckyeahcharli/status/1495850519499268099?s=21
50. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1506695582315913216?t=3E0QpV93DYHl3G7aD9SDuQ&s=19
51. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1247984476413714437
52. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1252655400865992705
53. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1257539256131694592
54. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1321944302868668422
55. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1396518761881083906
56. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1396528367810322441
57. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1413186467447246849
58. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1413191112584404992
59. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1414980662445047816
60. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1415405915906314244
61. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1415406733397159937
62. ↑ https://twitter.com/charli\_xcx/status/1418590396171513859
63. ↑ https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1444370546272186371
64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 https://twitter.com/FckyeahCharli/status/1446640119335751680

**Warning:** Display title "<i>CRASH</i>" overrides earlier display title "<i>Crash</i> (album)".