How Charli XCX and Lorde (& Brandy and Monica) worked it out on the remix

The Frank 9

THE FRANK 9

Frank is a pop culture newsletter from Ira Madison III — subscribe to get weekly essays and culture recommendations!

The Frank 9 is usually for paid subscribers, but I was in the midst of preparing for a reading of my play followed by a brief Fire Island vacation, so this one is absolutely free.

Justin Timberlake’s Tour

Nooooo don’t ruin Justin Timberlake’s Tour, you’re so sexy. Alright, I don’t know that there’s much more to say about Justin’s arrest, which leaked mere minutes after we’d finished recording Keep It. But I’ll give it a go:

According to Page Six, Justin Timberlake pulled a Lizzie Grubman in the Hamptons and drove drunk. Only he couldn’t even manage to plow into sixteen people (no one died at Stonewall or the Grubman Hamptons incident, don’t worry) like the one-time NYC It Girl! Reportedly, the arresting officer didn’t recognize him and under his breath Justin said, “This is going to ruin the tour.” The cop: “What tour?” Justin: “The world tour.” A meme was born!

First, many people had no idea Justin was even on tour (shades of J Lo…). I personally did, and because I kind of liked Justin Timberlake’s recent album Everything I Thought I Was, I was planning to buy tickets to the tour last minute just like I’d planned for J Lo. “Fuckin Up the Disco” is a jam, there’s no need to lie! And the FutureSex/LoveShow is still one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.

I also made a joke online about how “maybe I love Blue lives!” which I had to mute because of course, no one knows what jokes are anymore online, and of course that meant that Justin Timberlake being locked up in a cushy cell The Hamptons meant that all of a sudden I love the police! Everything is stupid, all the time.

It’s a shame that Justin Timberlake wasn’t taping for Summer House. I think that’d be a fun career move for him, to be honest! And given the way the internet reacts to men on that show, like the entire second half of the reunion coddling Carl Radke and chastising ex Lindsay Hubbard for not supporting his dreams to open a non-alcoholic sports bar, I’m sure it’d be the perfect career rehab!

Speaking of Summer House, I’d love for Lindsay to leave the show. Then maybe anyone else on the show would have to come up with some interesting conflict and storylines. We’ll see how kumbaya everyone is then.

The Boy Is Mine Remix with Brandy & Monica

As Whitney Houston once said, “I listen to SINGERS. I very rarely listen to people who cannot sing.” And this is singing, honey. This is vocals. This BLACK MUSIC.

Also, it warms my heart so much to see Brandy and Monica on the same track knowing that the initial “The Boy is Mine” era was rife with drama between the two women. Actually, drama is putting it lightly. Monica punched Brandy in the face backstage at an awards show in 1998 and even recorded the song separately. This was mostly industry gossip for years until it was confirmed a few years ago by producer Dallas Austin. While industry drama can be fun (the Fleetwood Mac of it all), it’s also kind of heartbreaking to realize that such a massive moment for both women was mired in such a nasty feud. It also explains why even on joint tours I’ve seen Brandy and Monica do together, they never performed “The Boy is Mine” together.

But time can heal wounds! According to Monica, recording the remix with Ariana was healing for her and Brandy all these years later: “We recognized that the key was to keep other people out of our relationship, both business and personal… It’s changed the trajectory of it in its totality. My son was in the hospital the other day and she was who I was speaking to while he was there, so I think that is what Ariana has done that she may not even realize.”

I guess you could say they “worked it out on the remix,” like Charli XCX and Lorde did with their own beef on the same day…

The girl, so confusing version with Lorde

For the uninitiated, Charli XCX and Lorde had beef. Well, not really. Turns out it was all in Charli XCX’s head (well, she is a Leo after all!). Comparisons with Lorde were commonplace after 2014’s “Royals,” so much that an interviewer even mixed them up once:

@tanaslaughterInterviewer confuses Charli Xcx with Lorde, October 2014 #charlixcx #lorde #popculture #2010s

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In May, Charli admitted to Rolling Stone that the comparisons made her jealous of Lorde. “When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that Ella got. You piece all this stuff together in your brain, like: ‘She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick.’ You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people. I wasn’t making music that sounded anything like ‘Royals’. I think you just read what you want into it because you’re feeling insecure about your own work.”

Charli addressed the jealousy on BRAT’s “girl, so confusing”:

People say we're alike
They say we've got the same hair
We talk about making music
But I don't know if it's honest
Can't tell if you wanna see me
Falling over and failing
And you can't tell what you're feeling
I think I know how you feel

After confessing in Rolling Stone, it turns out Charli left a voicemail for Lorde and asked her to work out their drama on a remix of “girl, so confusing.” I know how hard it is for a Leo to admit fault, so leaving that voicemail must have been stressful. But what it led to was a remix of the song that dropped today. And Lorde’s lyrics clear up the drama:

Well, honestly, I was speechless
When I woke up to your voice note
You told me how you'd been feeling
Let's work it out on the remix
You'd always say, "Let's go out"
But then I'd cancel last minute
I was so lost in my head
And scared to be in your pictures
'Cause for the last couple years
I've been at war in my body
I tried to starve myself thinner
And then I gained all the weight back
I was trapped in the hatred
And your life seemed so awesome
I never thought for a second
My voice was in your head
"Girl, you walk like a bitch"
When I was ten, someone said that
And it's just self-defence
Until you're building a weapon
She believed my projection
And now I totally get it
Forgot that inside the icon
There's still a young girl from Essex

As it turns out, they were both projecting their own insecurities and it created an unnecessary rift between the pop singers. When the remix dropped last night, the internet went wild. And rightly so. It’s another addition to an already stellar album from Charli XCX, a great addition to pop music lore, and also a sign that Lorde needs to get in the studio with AG Cook for her next album (the one after the rumored Dev Hynes album, of course)!

DOPAMINE

Who could’ve known that after all this time, Normani’s Chinese Demoncracy… sorry, Normani’s debut album DOPAMINE would actually be really fucking good? We dropped our review of the stellar album on Keep It this week:

So far, the essential tracks are “Big Boy” (a banger that was on repeat in my Fire Island house all weekend), “Take My Time” (a pop anthem), “Insomnia” (Brandy vocals!!!), “Candy Paint,” and “Little Secrets.” I’m hopeful that getting over this hurdle means Normani is finally ready to embrace the stardom that everyone has hoped for her.

Kinds of Kindness

Yorgos Lanthimos is back on his weird shit. Yorgos is back together with his frequent collaborator Efthimis Filippou, who he co-wrote The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Dogtooth, and Alps with. Those films are all deranged, weird, funny, absurd, and chilling. Which isn’t too different from his more recent films The Favourite and Poor Things, but he let Tony McNamara take the writing reigns on those films and they were a lot more accessible and commercial than a typical Yorgos film. Which is all to say, Kinds of Kindness might confuse the casual moviegoer, but it’s a really fun and weird ride.

The film is an anthology, told via three separate stories, to varying success. I won’t go into further details about the stories yet (in a later post, I will!), but I'll just say that one of them felt like a complete story, another I wanted more from, and a third was somewhat middling. But overall, I loved the film and can’t wait to see it again. Also, I’d be really interested in seeing Yorgos tackle theatre. There are shades of Eugene Ionesco and Harold Pinter in everything he writes that I think would be absolutely thrilling on stage.

The Exorcism

While I haven’t personally seen The Exorcism yet, it was written by my friends Joshua John Miller and Mark Fortin so I trust it will be a good time at the movies (also it’s hot as hell in NYC rn and I can’t think of anything better than sitting in an AMC all day). It’s the second film from them inspired by Joshua’s relationship with his dad, actor Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist. The first is the excellent The Final Girls.

You can expect some good horror, some good laughs, and some queer shit that isn’t being marketed in the trailer (of course, it’s Hollywood).

Post Malone’s Beer Commercial

I am struggling as of late as a Post Malone fan. I’m all for his country era (kicked off with a feature on Beyoncé’s “Levii’s Jeans,” but the fact that his last song was with Morgan fucking Wallen and now his latest features Blake Shelton? He is truly testing one of his strongest warriors. And the fact that both songs are bops makes it even worse.

But given that this music video seems to be nothing more than a Bud Light commercial, maybe Posty’s country switch-up is just him getting the bag. And honestly, at least that I can support!

AnnaLynne McCord on Days of Our Lives

My queen Naomi Clark from 90210 is finally back! AnnaLynne McCord played one of my absolute favorite TV characters on The CW spin-off of Beverly Hills, 90210 and I’m thrilled she’s joining another one of my favorite shows Days of Our Lives.

We only saw a glimpse of her this week, but I’m sure we’ll jump right ahead into her role as a recast Abigail DiMera.

Chappell Roan on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

I’ve already documented how hard I’ve fallen for Chappell Roan. But this interview seems to have cemented her star power for even my most stubborn friends. She’s quick-witted and shouts out Sasha Colby, what more could you want from a burgeoning superstar?

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The Frank Hot 9

The Hot 100 has been pretty useless for a while, so here are the nine songs on my Spotify On Repeat this week.

1 - “Nasty,” Tinashe (last week: 2)

2 - “BODYGUARD,” Beyoncé (last week: 1)

3 - “Big Boy,” Normani featuring Starrah

4 - “360,” Charli XCX (last week: same)

5 - “Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter (last week: 3)

6 - “II Hands II Heaven,” Beyoncé (last week: same)

7- “End of an Era,” Dua Lipa (last week: 9)

8 - “365,” Charli XCX

9 - “Drive,” Original Cast of Stereophonic

“Nasty” has ratcheted up to the top spot, along with a high first appearance from Normani thanks to frequent appearances on my Fire Island playlists. The same goes for both Charli XCX songs.

Some other new songs that might appear on the list soon:

“us.,” Gracie Abrams featuring Taylor Swift (J.J. Abrams’ checked cleared on this Tortured Poets Department demo clearly),

“Chanel No. 5,” Camila Cabelo

“Crash,” Kehlani (an unexpected rock track??)