UK pop star Charli XCX has released a music video for her latest single, Beg For You with Rina Sawayama. The single, which is the third to be released off her forthcoming album Crash, interpolates September’s early 2000s hit Cry For You. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, XCX said of the song, “I felt like Crash wouldn’t really be a truthful representation of what it’s like to be a female pop artist signed to Atlantic Records without doing an interpolation song.” Beg For You follows previous singles Good Ones and New Shapes, which featured Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens.
In the video, XCX and Sawayama exchange verses and sharp choreography in a desolate field surrounded by electricity pylons. A strange ritual takes place, involving a priest-like figure in a horned gimp suit and a pool of bright pink liquid.
Speaking on Crash, which is due on March 18, XCX has expressed that because the album will be her last on her current deal with Atlantic Records that she was fully embracing “what it means to be a pop star on a major label in a not very current way.” So far the music has been a marked departure from her signature experimental and hyperpop sound, as heard on her previous two albums Charli and How I’m Feeling Now.
Watch the music video for Beg For You below, and pre-order Crash here.