‘Beg For You’ is the anticipated collaboration between hyper-pop talent Charli XCX and rising star Rina Sawayama. It is the third single from Charli’s upcoming album Crash, releasing on March 18th, 2022.
The single’s most note-worthy element is a garage-esque type beat that colours it with a UK sound. Aside from the percussion, we can hear an arpeggiated synth line repeating throughout the track, and additional background synths and bass to add ambience and punch at different times. There is nothing particularly distinctive about the vocals and melody – they sound standard. The lyrics are rather uninspiring and predictable at times, and the chorus is majorly instrumental, slightly reminding me of a more laid-back version of the big EDM choruses of the 2010s.
‘Beg For You’ comes across as an attempt for Charli XCX to break into the mainstream, following her two previous singles ‘Good Ones’ and ‘New Shapes’, featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. The song’s length is 2:48, this seems to follow Tik Tok’s trend of producing songs under 3 minutes.
Crash will be Charli’s fifth and last record to be released under her current contract with Atlantic Records. Its departure from her signature hyper-pop and future-pop sound into a more mainstream pop sound is understood to be an ironic take on mainstream music in a major label. Charli goes full pop to prove her point. Despite the witty take, the track still feels a bit lazy and underwhelming, far from what we know Charli XCX is capable of.