Mean Girls ft. Julian Casablancas by Charli XCX: A Collaboration Wanted but Not Needed

By Eva Sawdey

Charli XCX’s album Brat was released at the beginning of the summer, and since then, the record is quickly transforming to a cultural mindset: being authentically yourself, defying standards of the patriarchy, being self-accepting without inhibitions, and a little chaotic. With the widespread popularity of the album, Charli XCX released Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat this fall, which are recordings of the songs on the original album but with features of many known artists, including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Julian Casablancas. Charli XCX commented in an interview with Apple Music how her motivation for Brat was to produce something strictly for her fans and no one else. She follows by saying, “niche is rewarded so much more than it ever has been,” and labels are starting to take notice. Charli XCX didn’t intend to become the pop star she grew to be, but she gave into the niche and made the album for her fans. 

Julian Casablancas, most famous for being the lead singer in The Strokes and The Voidz, isn’t new to collaboration, but by collaborating with Charli XCX on her song, ‘Mean girls’, he switches gears from his alternative, post-punk style, and in some ways, inserts himself into a new revival of party music.  

My first impression of the song was unexpected. Being a fan of Julian Casablancas, I was excited to hear him in something very out of his realm of music. Listening to the song, I wasn’t sure if these two genres could be mixed. The instrumental felt dissonant during my first listen, and the high-pitched piano introduction with the heavy bass and beats felt like an abrupt start. Another aspect, a never-ending repetition of lyric, “this one’s for all my mean girls,” creates a time loop that must be escaped. The runs that Charli XCX applied felt cliché and forced. After my first listen, I thought ‘Mean girls featuring Julian Casablancas’ was just too techno pop for me. However, because of the reviews and online popularity, I wanted to give the song another shot. The tune is very upbeat, but when listening to what the words mean, there is a sadness being shadowed over. The lyrics summarise a toxic relationship and the realisation that it has to stop. Julian Casablancas brings a sort of reasoning to the song by reflecting on the relationship. “I don’t understand” and “I followed the rules” implies some sense of spiraling and doubting if more could have been done to work it out. Doubting yourself and pretending to be someone else strays from the Brat mindset, making the song feel less like Charli XCX and more like Julian Casablancas. The parts that Charli does sing sound like a phony anthem, singing, “This one’s for all my mean girls,” This is probably caused by Julian’s influence, giving off the narrative that the singer is trying to stay guarded or downplay their pain. Because of the contrasting voices, the two parts seem contrary to one another. The story that the song is trying to convey feels like it’s being told by an unreliable narrator.

The original song ‘Mean Girls’ on Brat follows a more coherent story. Charli XCX sets a scene of this very Brat girl living her life, going out, and radiating mystery and coolness. The instrumental aspect of the song is also more cohesive and collective than the one with Julian Casablancas. There is no piano introduction in the original, but the piano introduction in the remix is, instead, in the middle of the original song. The original mix flows better, with the piano becoming electronic, rather than the abrupt cycling between the piano and the electric sound on the remix. The original song is quintessential Brat, but the one featuring Julian Casablancas is less “let’s go jump on a table at the club” and more “let’s try not to cry on the dance floor.” This is understandable because of the addition of another artist’s perspective and style, but besides that, I think the composition of the remix is more crunchy and clashy. The sudden switches from Julian’s robotic voice and Charli’s party chants, along with the instrumental cacophony, make the feature less organised, and more strained, than the original. 

The difficulty of bringing other artists onto a feature is finding a balance between honoring the original and collaboration. ‘Mean girls featuring Julian Casablancas’ allows Casablancas to have too much influence on the feature. As much as I enjoy listening to Julian’s reflectiveness and vulnerable thoughts, it is not very Charli XCX. The mix of the two sounds is like experiencing whiplash. This doesn’t speak to Charli or Julian’s ability to produce balanced features because there are other songs like ‘Guess featuring Billie Eilish’ and ‘Instant Crush’ that are cohesive, and the two genres do work together. I think there was a lot of potential for a collaborative piece between Charli XCX and Julian Casablancas, but the execution this time was just off.