Melissa Kacar

Hey Billie, you there? Happy Record Store Day! To celebrate one of the biggest events of the year for independent record stores, Charli xcx and Billie Eilish released a special 7" vinyl single for their iconic 2024 collaboration "Guess". It was one of my most anticipated releases for this year and I'm so happy to have it in my collection! There were only 10,000 copies of this vinyl pressed worldwide and sold exclusively at independent record stores in April 2025. It is a classic black pressing with the iconic shade of brat green as the center label. The disc itself is overall very minimalist, with no markings at all on either side of the center label. Like all of the vinyl from the BRAT era , there is a sticker closing the record that needs to be cut open very carefully. This is one of two special releases Charli released this year to celebrate independent record stores.  It is housed in a cardboard sleeve, which is so different than any other record sleeve I'...

"party 4 u" by Charli xcx is a euphoric anthem of unrequited love, a song full of glittering synths and raw emotion. She sings about throwing an entire party with the hopes that just the one person she wants to see the most will be there - a very Gatsby theme that she translated so well into this song. It is featured on her 2020 album how i'm feeling now , which was largely created in isolation and released in the thick of the pandemic in May of that year. She worked with her frequent collaborator, A.G. Cook , on this song and the rest of the album. By the time the pandemic started, they only had about half of the album finished, so they decided to go with a DIY approach while finishing the rest of how i'm feeling now .  "party 4 u" had a much longer history by that point though, as Charli said in an interview with Apple Music. "This is the oldest song on the album. For myself and A. G., this song has so much life and story," Charli said. "We...

brat and it's completely differe nt but also still brat totally redefined the concept of a remix album. To top off the massive year Charli xcx had following the release BRAT , she took the concept of that album and every single song and completely transformed it into something brand new. It takes the idea that every song's concept, or even just song title, can have so many different lives that can be (and should be) explored further than just the original version of it. Many of the songs don't even feature a single lyric or melody from the original versions, but still find a way to expand and evolve the meaning behind each. Charli's approach to this project is as artful as it is groundbreaking and its long overdue for her to finally get her flowers. By embracing the reworking of concepts, Charli showcases the dynamic potential that exists within her music. "I think what's interesting about the remix album... is I was writing the original record when I was in ...