MUSIC

Charli XCX's "Gone" Should Win the Grammy for Song of the Year

It wasn't nominated, but Charli's duet with Christine and the Queens is my personal SOTY.

Charli XCX & Christine and the Queens - Gone in the Live Lounge

Do you hear that sound? It's the subtle hum of the music hive buzzing, because the Recording Academy just announced their nominees for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.

A brief summary of this year's honorees: Rapper-flautist extraordinaire Lizzo earned the most nominations with eight total, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish weren't too far behind with six nods each, including nominations in the same categories. Indieheads might be pleased to know that Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, and Lana Del Rey are also up for Album of the Year. The best news of all is that Ed Sheeran received absolutely no nominations.

While it's pretty cool to see so many newcomers welcomed to the Grammy roster—including Lil Nas X, a young queer POC, three demographics historically overlooked by the Recording Academy—I couldn't help but notice a few glaring voids among the nominations. In particular, I'm devastated that "Gone" by Charli XCX featuring Christine and the Queens, my personal song of the year, has been forgotten altogether.

Released in July, "Gone" was the third single preceding Charli's latest album, Charli, her first full-length project since 2017's cult-favorite masterpiece, Pop 2. On first listen, the magic of the song is glaringly evident; the clanging, stuttering PC Music production melds perfectly with Charli and Chris' poppy melodies. As they deliver one of the year's best and most relatable lyrics—"I feel so unstable, f***ing hate these people"—"Gone" perfectly exemplifies the catharsis and healing that can come from a great bop.

But Charli exists in a strange overlap between underground fame and mainstream recognition, a juxtaposition she's aware of and even embraces. But the Grammys aren't friendly to artists in that sphere. Charli hasn't had one of her own songs crack the Hot 100 since 2015's "Break the Rules" (though she did have a hand in penning "Señorita," the No. 1 hit that earned Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello a Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nomination). Charli did see moderate success on the Billboard 200, peaking at #42, but that's evidently not enough momentum in the Academy's eyes.

Few pop songs this year can match the force that is "Gone," and nearly everything that came close—such as Normani's solo debut "Motivation"—were also snubbed for this year's awards. Some of the Best Pop Solo Performance nominees, like Beyonce's "Spirit" and Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down," were letdowns coming from their respective artists, while the Duo/Group category—save for maybe "Old Town Road"—is incredibly underwhelming. Maybe Charli will forever remain a sort of concealed revolutionary in pop. Maybe I'll just have to be OK with that.

MUSIC

Blood Orange Releases Gorgeous, Atmospheric New Video for "Hope"

The video features Diddy, ASAP Rocky, Tyler the Creator, Tei Shi, and more

Dev Hynes (better known as Blood Orange) has been making some of the most richly complex, genre-defying music and multimedia art of the past decade. Yesterday, Hynes continued this tradition with a new video for "Hope," posting a snippet on his Instagram account.

"Hope" was one of many standouts on Hynes' 2018 album, Negro Swan. Its video, out today on Apple Music, is just as elegant and innovative as the song it brings to life. It features a wide variety of notable collaborators, including Diddy and Tei Shi, and was produced and shot on 35mm by Elara Pictures.

Hynes directed and edited the video himself. You can see his signature ability to spin disparate imagery and genres into a cohesive whole manifested even in the short Instagram clip, which features slow-motion visuals of people running through autumn leaves, dancers spinning against a scarlet background, and the artists creating the track in a studio, Hynes shaping it into being from the mixing board.

The full video begins with Dominique screaming at a man on a busy street, asking him to hear her. Then, the first few chords come in, drowning her speech as the footage slips into slow motion. From there the video pans to Tei Shi, singing the song's riff on a crowded sidewalk, her pale blue jumpsuit adding spots of color to the faded concrete backdrop. These are shots of tentative optimism, of people just beginning to find their voices, discovering companionship and beauty in unexpected places.

Tei Shi - "Bassically" (Official Music Video)www.youtube.com

Most of the video takes place on the streets or in the studio, but every shot remains true to Blood Orange's vision, juxtaposing the quotidian with dreamy clips of bodies moving in surreal ways. We see dancers frozen in motion around a grand piano; moody, blue-washed shots of A$AP Rocky running across a city street and flipping off the camera under neon lights; Empress Of swaying against a screen of flames.

Ultimately the video seems to be about the gap between fame and intimacy, dreams and reality, fear and hope—a sentiment that's reaffirmed in its final monologue, penned and narrated by Puff Daddy.

"Sometimes I ask myself, what is it gonna take for me not to be afraid to be loved the way I really want to be loved?" Diddy asks over elegant piano trills. "I know how I really want to be loved, but I'm scared to really really feel that. It's like you want something but you don't know if you can handle it. You give me that hope that maybe one day I get over my fears and I receive."

Blood Orange will be on tour with Florence + the Machine and Christine and the Queens this spring.


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


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