Charli XCX is back with her fourth studio album, how i’m feeling now, which was created entirely while she was social distancing in California. Production is handled by Charli’s longtime collaborators A. G. Cook and BJ Burton, as well as Dijon, Palmistry, Danny L Harle, and 100 gecs‘ Dylan Brady.
The singer first announced that she was starting to work on the record on April 6, setting herself a strict deadline of May 15 to release the project.
In an interview with Stereogum, Charli explained why the album was a “collaboration” with her fans that involved teasing countless demos, cover art, and other visual components of the project in Zoom calls and live streams:
I think it’s kind of because of what you said—my fans have been such a big part of my story. They really know me and they understand my musical reference points and my collaborators’ musical reference points, so they’re really able to contribute quite detailed things. Like, they can be like, ‘Oh you should change the snare sound to something like this demo that leaked two years ago.’ They really know that sh*t when it comes to my music and my music in progress as well, not just the final product.
Charli also revealed why much of the record centers around her relationship with her partner Huck Kwong, while breaking down how quarantine has brought them closer together.
“I’m quarantined with my boyfriend, and I write what I experience,” she told Stereogum. “So my main subject matter is our relationship, which obviously I’ve written about before, but I guess this time period has allowed our relationship to evolve, actually for the better. It’s really brought us so close together, and it’s made me really realize the connection that I have with this person. I think that’s not really a subject I’ve explored too much in depth, because our relationship was drastically different before the quarantine.”
