Kurt Vile Covers Charli XCX’s “Constant Repeat”: Listen

I became an overnight fan of Charli XCX a lil over a year ago (on the release date of my last album April 2022). I played an in-store at Rough Trade East London and her poster covered the entire front door. I flew home the next morning listening to my newly acquired CRASH cd over and over again (through a discman, naturally!)

…I turned my daughters on as soon as I got home and yeah we’ve been super fans ever since. No disrespect (and total respect!) to the Angels who’ve been Charli fans since the beginning… but that said me and my daughters Awilda (13) and Delphine (10) know most of her catalog by heart at this point (on constant repeat!) and that’s just a testament to how amazing and infectious (and beautiful!) her songs are.

When I was asked to record a Charli XCX song in honor of her Ivors Visionary Award (!!!) my brain kept going back to “Constant Repeat” which hit me hardest first (back then on that flight), it’s such a killer… while knowing it’d be no easy feat and I was nervous but hey…

I definitely couldn’t’ve done this song any justice alone so that’s why my girls sang their hearts out with me, so… I had to slow my version down a lil, maybe forget a chord or two, play some mellow acoustic gtr (and shoegaze electrics!) and keep it chill in my wheelhouse.

There’s only one Charli and I can’t touch her version, we can only try and pay homage… I’m relieved it sounds different than the original… tho my daughters got her melody down pretty great, gotta say, and yeah Charli is just our favest.