On “Persona,” Charli xcx Pulls A “Girl, So Confusing” On Herself

The day has finally come: Charli xcx has dropped her seventh studio album, Music, Fashion, Film. Though the rock-influenced, autotune-free project is definitely a sonic departure from the electronic club-pop that is 2024’s Brat, the album actually rehashes several of the same themes as its predecessor. She immortalizes her friendship with close collaborator A.G. Cook on “Magic Metal Montana,” relates her fears about love back to her strained relationship with her parents on “I’m Afraid,” and then there’s “Persona,” which is basically the “Girl, So Confusing” of the record. Only this time, she might just be talking about herself.

Charli wastes no time casting the first stone, telling her adversary, “Sometimes I wonder if you realize the way you come across / It's kind of crazy / Wish you could be honest about your internal dialogue / It wouldn't faze me.” At first, she pits herself against the antagonist in a such a way that makes it seem like she’s addressing another a person entirely, especially in the following line: “You like the sound of your voice / And I like the sound of mine.” It isn’t until the next line, however, that it starts becoming clear who she’s pointing the finger at. “Every day you're suffering / But you say you're doing fine,” she sings. No one knows the truth about Charli’s internal state better than Charli herself, and until she’s able to quell that antagonistic part of her “internal dialogue,” she’ll continue to suffer in silence.

She gets even more vicious on the chorus, singing:

Don't f*cking choke on your ego when you see me coming / I know you're performing, I know that you're hurting / So you try to hide it when you see me coming / Don't wanna confront it, I'm scared I'm annoying / You call mе your best friend to keep me at arm's length

“Don’t f*cking choke on your ego when you see me coming” is a pretty harsh sentiment for someone you consider a friend, but packs just the right amount of punch when talking about a part of yourself that you don’t necessarily like or feel connected to. The line “I know you're performing, I know that you're hurting” might be the most important lyric of them all, as the mention of “performing” makes it seem as though the part of herself that Charli is feuding with is her pop star or celebrity persona (hence the song title).

The idea of the persona returns in the second verse as Charli sings, “I gotta say, I do respect the commitment to the bit / Now, that's persona / We're both under the influence of life imitating art / And we both know it.” The two sides of Charli have seemingly agreed upon allowing this push and pull to persist in the name of art — on the track “I’m Afraid,” she admits: “All this pain makes me believe I'm a better artist now / An excuse I tell myself to act selfishly.”

She repeats the line “I know you see me when I see you” throughout the song, an obvious metaphor for looking in the mirror. Yes, the conflicting parts of herself occupy opposing sides internally, but they’ll always share a common denominator in Charli. Both halves belong to the same person, and wouldn’t exist without her.

If Brat taught us anything, it’s that Charli has her insecurities just like the rest of us. Being famous doesn’t make the dissenting voices in your head go away — in fact, they probably only get louder as your celebrity rises. And while outside forces can definitely trigger those insecurities, you can’t place the blame on others forever. Eventually you need to cut your doubts off at the source, and confront the voice in your head that’s feeding into them directly. Of course, that’s easier said than done, and truthfully, it doesn’t seem like Charli is ready to go down that path just yet.

“Persona” and Music, Fashion, Film are available to stream now.