“The Moment” is Charli xcx’s disturbing sellout fantasy

In March 2022, forward-thinking British pop auteur Charli xcx released what was to be her “sellout” record, “Crash.” The album capped a lengthy, constricting record label contract that Charli had been trying to optimize for years, to varying success. “Crash” eschewed Charli’s typical boundary-pushing electronic sound to aim for something notably more commercial, and, ever the rebel, Charli attempted to homogenize this marketable music with visual ideas that were more to her own taste. The album...