Charli XCX Parties as Marie Antoinette, Blasphemously Sexy Monk in ‘Used to Know’ Video

Charli XCX embraces transformation in the new music video for her Crash track, “Used to Know.”

“Used to Know,” with its sample of the Robin S. house classic “Show Me Love,” is an anthem for post break-up freedom, and the clip finds Charli fully embracing that liberation. The clip follows the pop singer and a pair of dancers as they perform the track in an array of different settings with complementary costumes, like high school cheerleaders, Eighties fitness mavens, and blasphemously sexy monks. The clip ends with a Marie Antoinette rave up, and while the costume disappears when Charli returns to her bedroom, there’s still a cheeky piece of cake waiting to be eaten. 

Charli XCX released Crash in March, marking her fifth studio album and first since her 2020 pandemic project, How I’m Feeling Now. The singer recently kicked off a lengthy North American tour, which continue tonight, April 15, in Asheville, North Carolina and wraps April 29 in Chicago (a European run will follow). 

In an interview with IndieLand ahead of the release of Crash, Charli spoke about the album’s narrative concept of the “evil pop star,” and how that’s related to her experiences asa major label pop artist. 

“I’ve been signed to a major label since I was 16,” she said. “I think I’ve had quite an untypical major-label-artist journey, so it’s interesting to operate within that framework. I suppose this record and the imagery is partially a comment on that. It’s also partially a comment on what authenticity is. I think artists feel they need to really prove that they wrote their own songs, that they direct their own music videos, that they are the brain behind everything. As I got older, I began to care less and less about that because I know I can write a great pop song and I know I can communicate my vision.”