Charli XCX keeps the alternative-pop chaos moving with Playboy Bunny

Charli XCX’s Playboy Bunny is still one of the strongest current alternative-pop items to carry into 26 May. The track arrived as the B-side to SS26 and follows Rock Music and I Keep Thinking About You Every Single Day And Night, all part of a rollout that seems determined to confuse anyone trying to file Charli neatly into one category.

Stereogum described Playboy Bunny as a sassy shoegaze anthem, which is a useful phrase because it captures the contradiction at the center of the song. It is not shoegaze in the shy, wallflower sense. It is fuzzy, atmospheric and guitar-heavy, but still very Charli: self-aware, stylish, cutting and tuned into pop spectacle as both playground and problem.

The fact that Playboy Bunny is limited to her B-sides Instagram and a limited 7-inch also makes the release feel like a controlled leak from an artist who understands scarcity as part of the game. For an indie/alternative digest, Charli belongs because her post-Brat world keeps touching underground club music, rock performance, internet culture, fashion critique and pop stardom all at once. Playboy Bunny might be a B-side, but it feels like a signal: the next Charli era may be less about choosing between pop and rock than about making both look slightly unstable. Source: https://stereogum.com/2499976/charli-xcx-playboy-bunny/music