When Charli first, er, teased the album artwork for the “Guess” remix featuring Billie Eilish, she dared her fans to, that’s right, guess who it was joining her on the cover for this revamped edition. Despite the retroactive dead giveaway that it was Billie Eilish (you know, the butch, 90s boy aesthetic), perhaps no one, in their wildest fantasies, could have imagined that such an iconic collaboration would come on the heels of Charli working with Lorde on the “Girl, so confusing” remix. And, like Lorde, Eilish has plenty to offer when it comes to contributing a new verse to this track. One that is on-brand for the sex-drenched nature of the song.
Funnily enough, it seems to have taken a millennial to help Gen Z remember that life doesn’t have to be sexless. It can be raunchy, promiscuous and, yes, even panty-dropping. In short, it can recapture all the key visuals of Project X. And if Charli and Billie comprised the collaboration people had only dreamed about, it would be in keeping with the premise of that movie, with its tagline: “The party you’ve only dreamed about.” This is the effect Charli is going for in the Aidan Zamiri-directed video for “Guess,” which also seems to recreate the garbage-filled aesthetic of the Atacama Desert in Chile, where fast fashion goes to die, creating massive piles within the landfill. It’s a similar pile that Charli and Billie mount toward the middle of the video, only to roll back down it with glee as they meet one another at the bottom in a shot that positions them lying side by side as though they just banged (metaphorically, they kind of have).
To that end, perhaps Charli has learned her lesson (somewhat) about promoting environment-destroying behavior (hear: any of her songs that serve as love letters to driving) by including a disclaimer at the end of the video that reads, “All unworn garments will be donated to survivors of domestic violence through I Support the Girls.” Of course, all the “garments” in question are lingerie-related, which is a bit of an odd donation to make to victims of domestic abuse, but anyway…
Zamiri, who also photographed Eilish for her Rolling Stone cover earlier this year, opens the video on a close-up of Charli’s sunglasses-covered face (the ultimate symbol of her Brat era) as she asks, “Billie, you there?” The answer to that question is: not just yet. Billie’s big entrance will be made once the party is already well underway. A party that takes place in a more 90s-ified version of the apartment style Charli showed us in the “Baby” video. After the close-up on her face, she introduces herself by cuntily walking across the trash-filled carpet. The timeline of whether the party already happened or is about to happen or she’s simply having another one without cleaning up from the night before isn’t important. What is, however, is the fact that Project X has so obviously remained a tried-and-true inspiration for XCX’s work. It was back in 2020 that she declared, “I think I’ve officially decided that Project X is my favorite movie of all time.” No matter how retrospectively uncomfortable the R. Kelly mention gets. And while others might see the 2012 high school comedy as “nothing special,” it makes sense that XCX would continue to idealize it. After all, she’s a big believer in party alchemy. The “power of the party,” as it were.
Case in point, back in 2019, when she did an interview for Nowness, Charli said, “I’m very inspired by parties. Lots of emotional things happen at parties, like, maybe you fall in love with someone, or you, like, spend a really amazing night with your friends, or you break up with someone. It’s, like, there’s a lot of emotions that go on at parties…” Hence, her attachment to them as more than something that’s merely “frivolous.” It’s a microcosm, a hotbed of unmitigated feelings (mainly thanks to las drogas). And the primary ones at this “Guess” party are, in two words, “let’s fuck.” The writhing, gyrating and general “every guy, grab a girl” vibe is practically a constant of the narrative.
In promoting this concept, Charli also proves that, theoretically, the “clean girl aesthetic” is over and that, accordingly, it’s “safe” to promote the messy lifestyle that goes hand in hand with drinking and drugging yet again (not that Charli ever really ceased doing that). Hence, the constant flash to partygoers smoking (actual cigarettes, none of this vape bullshit) and drinking throughout “Guess.”
Indeed, it can be argued that the last time partying in this manner was so acceptable was, in fact, back in 2012, when Project X was released. It was also the year of Kesha’s sophomore album, Warrior, which continued the “grimy girl” motif of her debut, Animal. Her vehement “party or die” (or “party and die,” depending on the person) mantra endured with a song like “Die Young,” during which Kesha declared, “Let’s make the most of the night like we’re gonna die young/Young hearts, out our minds/Runnin’ till we outta time/Wild childs, lookin’ good/Livin’ hard just like we should/Don’t care who’s watching when we tearing it up (you know)/That magic that we got nobody can touch.” This is the sentiment that permeates the “Guess” video, even if the lyrics themselves are far less wholesome, and much more in keeping with the gratuitously salacious tone of Charli’s other film favorite, Spring Breakers (though Camila Cabello tried her best to co-opt that “mood board” for C,XOXO).
This includes Eilish’s sexually-charged verse, “Don’t have to guess the color of your underwear/Already know what you’ve got goin’ on down there/It’s that lacy black pair with the little bows/The ones I picked out for you in Tokyo/I saw them when you sat down, they were peekin’ out/I’m gonna tell you right now, they’re all I’m thinkin’ about.” She delivers these lines after literally crashing the party in a bulldozer (it kind of reminds one of the way the party in Weird Science was crashed by the mutant bikers, riding right through the walls/glass doors to get in).
Charli eventually leaves the party with Billie (perhaps taking the latter up on her offer, “Charli likes boys, but she knows I’d hit it/Charli, call me if you’re with it”), riding on the side of the bulldozer/tractor as she bounces in a similar way to how she did in the video for “360” while pouring a glass of wine. Zamiri then rapidly intercuts scenes between the original party and the two-woman rager that Charli and Billie have continued together outside in the “wilds” of a concrete jungle somewhere in L.A. (for both singers favor that city, like anyone with consummate taste).
To conclude the even more sexed-up remix, the duo goads, “You wanna guess the address of the party we’re at (you really are not invited)/You wanna guess if we’re serious about this song.” That last line smacks of Justin Timberlake assuring at the end of “Rock Your Body,” “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song.” And sure, while he might be permanently “cancelled,” there’s no denying XCX was influenced by NSYNC, de facto Timberlake, at some point in the late 90s/early 00s.
As for boasting about the “hoi polloi” not being invited to the party, not only is it typical Brat behavior, it’s also in keeping with the necessary exclusivity of celebrities like XCX and Eilish, who have both dealt with their fair share of creepy civilian behavior. So one supposes that’s why the party of Project X was patently more epic in scope and aftermath—it didn’t discriminate about the guest list.
Genna Rivieccio
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