A. G. Cook Residue

Because there’s no argument at this point that Charli XCX is a bona fide cinephile (further confirmed by her unofficial “Queen of Sundance” title), the decided “Lynchian” flair of her latest video is, well, to be expected. The song in question is “Residue,” pulled from The Moment itself, which, unsurprisingly, is scored by Charli’s ride or die, A. G. Cook. And, following “Dread” and “Offscreen,” “Residue” is, thus far, the song that has the closest-sounding DNA to a preexisting Brat offering. Specifically, “365.” And as for the term “residue,” it hails from one of the, er, lines in the song that goes, “French manicure, wipe away the residue.” After which point, “365” starts to deviate into an all-out “hot mess”-meets-orgy of beats as the producers she tapped for the song, Cook and Cirkut, aim to adhere to the sound she was going for. Which is to say, re-creating what one hears as they walk (or stumble or dance) through various rooms of a club.

From the very first scene of the “Residue” video, Charli sports her signature “Brat look,” which consists of the easily-mimicked “costume” of a cigarette, white tank top and “raccoon eyeliner” meant to appear as if it’s been worn for days. She then abruptly tilts her head upward, as if “activated,” stares dead-eyed into the camera and drops her cig to the sidewalk, with her full “Brat costume” now revealed in its entirety, rounded out by black leather hot pants, black tights, knee-high black boots and a pair of black shades in hand. The tenseness of the song (which, along with all the others on The Moment’s score, Cook was given pretty much free rein to create without much “intervention” from Charli) then picks up as XCX struts down the street on autopilot, putting her sunglasses on and heading into a warehouse-looking structure as she passes a dumpster that’s overflowing with Brat green “items” (so nondescript that they could be any type of merch, really—though t-shirts feel like the best guess).

As for the warehouse space, it speaks to how Charli XCX is all about highlighting the ways in which pop stars “end up spending a lot of time inhabiting strange and soulless liminal spaces. Whether it’s the holding area of the event you’re about to enter, the airport lounge, the visa office, the claustrophobic tour bus, the green room with no windows, the underneath of a stage or the set build of a photoshoot or music video you’re on, you are often caught in the in-between. You’re in transit, you’re going somewhere but the journey itself takes up the majority of the experience.”

That precise “experience” is what comes across in the “Residue” video—along with the soullessness of it all. An eerie kind of feeling that starts to become especially palpable as XCX walks through her version of what amounts to Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge. Some evil, more sinister realm that has turned her art into unbridled and unmitigated commerce. A nonstop promotional/moneymaking/brand partnership opportunity.

As she walks through the darkened hallway, the first “Black Lodge Charli” we see is shown at a distance around the forty-five-second mark. When XCX passes by one of the random rooms, the viewer will clock an unsettling doppelgänger staring at herself in the mirror. The camera, all frenetic in its movements, then goes back to “Real Charli” (or perhaps “White Lodge Charli” works in this case as well) continuing to strut past a dude—a dead ringer for A. G. Cook or perhaps actually Cook himself—who appears semi-conscious as he rests atop a pile of plastic-wrapped Brat merch (again, t-shirts—with the Cook ringer or perhaps the real Cook wearing a shirt that says, “Shrek 5 Coming Soon”).

XCX then descends a staircase (spiral-like, as if to convey her descent into chaos—much like what Harry Styles does in the video for “Aperture”), whereupon she passes by more stacked Brat merch and another doppelgänger. One that follows her through the door and then “replaces” her as the Charli we keep seeing, following. This in and of itself indicating that the entire “Brat industrial complex” is no longer reliant on its originator in order to be successful. Charli herself is no longer the point; it’s the “movement” (and the moment) she’s created within the culture.

This “different but the same” Charli then passes two more Charlis standing creepily together in a room before she goes through a pair of double doors with a sign on it that reads, “Flash Warning.” And it’s in there that an entire factory of Charlis proceeds to do the same Sweat Tour / Brat Arena Tour choreo in unison. Various phrases projected on the screen (the one that delivers on the promise of requiring a “flash warning”) behind them provide such conflicting messages as, “Girl move on,” “Don’t move on,” “It’s over,” “Don’t let it be over” and, most tellingly, “Dead horse.” And, if anybody is good at beating one, it’s the Kardashian-Jenners. So maybe that’s part of why XCX enlists Kylie Jenner to appear in her Brat drag once the “Charli army” abruptly disappears, leaving only one “imposter” in their wake.

Jenner, of course, is a pale imitation of XCX, but her presence seems designed to underscore just how “corporate” the Brat enterprise has become. With nothing but the, that’s right, residue of Brat’s original incarnation (and innovator) left behind. But that doesn’t stop anyone from continuing to pick at the carcass and see what they can still get out of it. Hence, XCX’s general feeling of anxiety and “ick,” as so eloquently and deftly conveyed through Cook’s sonic language.

That Charli herself has unabashedly copped to being the first to keep picking at said carcass with a “2024 period piece” about her Brat journey (thereby reigniting “the moment” all over again) only speaks to her enduring sense of playfulness and irony when it comes to constantly swinging back and forth on the pendulum between fringe and mainstream. And with the reviews for The Moment that have trickled in thus far, it would appear that Charli is trying, once more, to swing back toward fringe again. But even David Lynch, for as “fringe” as he was, couldn’t avoid being popular beyond his own “niche” audience.