What Happens When a Pop Star Wants to Hide?

The new Charli xcx album closes with an address from David Cronenberg, who slowly enunciates what it’s like to almost die. “As I was lying there on the sidewalk, I did not think about art at all,” he explains. “I thought about people. I thought about life.” On Music, Fashion, Film, the people make far more than the place. Charli has plenty of qualms about the industries surrounding the three disciplines that, as she told Apple Music, are “what my life is about.” But she chooses to represent them with living avatars: John Cale, Marc Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese, gathered in a kitchen so spare that it only has an ashtray. It’s not exactly idolatry, and it’s not exactly partnership. It’s more like proof of life.