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This statement will come as no surprise to you read this week’s Currently, but I have a strange fascination with celebrity relationships. I get weirdly invested in some of them and keep up with all the gossip and goings on, despite the fact that a lot of the “news” is just conjecture based in tabloid culture. I’m happy when I see pictures of their extravagant weddings and I’m sad when they break up. I do not think that it’s my best trait, by any means, but it’s not one I’ve even tried to kick; the rabbit hole of a relationship timeline is too enticing.
One of my favorite pop albums released this year is FLETCHER’s Girl of My Dreams (2022), her debut full-length effort. Before I get lost in the weeds of the drama surrounding this record and her public persona in general, I want to say that I think Girl of My Dreams is tastefully produced, well-written, and impeccably performed. Cari Fletcher’s voice is really something else, and I’m partial to this album first and foremost because it is very good.
I first heard of FLETCHER through a viral TikTok in which she was teasing the first official single from her album, way back in July. She’s wearing a t-shirt and dancing in a driveway, nothing visually flashy. The appeal is in the song itself: the lyrics make explicit reference to a woman named Becky—Becky Missal, FLETCHER’s ex-girlfriend’s new girlfriend. Are you keeping up?
Cari Fletcher and YouTuber Shannon Beveridge had a highly public, four year long, on-again-off-again relationship which culminated in THE S(EX) TAPES (2020), a collaborative project they concepted while quarantining together after their final breakup. Lyrically, the EP held nothing back, an exploration of their split and the accompanying emotional damage. The visual aspect of the project was similarly disarming, raw and incredibly painful to watch. The crux is the voyeuristic, night-vision video for “If I Hated You.”
Two years passed, in which FLETCHER released a few collaborative singles that were seemingly outside the Shannon Beveridge cinematic universe. FLETCHER’s content centered around self-love and acceptance, female friendship, and women’s rights. The skies seemed to be clearing for her.
And then, that TikTok. “Becky’s So Hot” only increased the velocity of her meteoric rising star, but it also brought back the air of controversy around her music. Shannon made a TikTok addressing the song saying she wasn’t consulted, posted a video of Becky in the referenced shirt, and released a line of merch with the text “Becky’s so hot” on them. FLETCHER, for her part, was transparent in interviews about the genesis of the song—she was Instagram stalking her ex’s new girlfriend, simple as that.
The next two singles, “Sting” and “Better Version,” are also uncensored musings on the breakup. I usually find such explicit drama kind of tasteless, but I think what sets this album apart is the lack of anger, the way that FLETCHER turns inward to her own shortcomings. She admits to missing her ex, bad, and I think that the vulnerability is admirable.
The song on this playlist, “Birthday Girl,” is one of my favorites from the record. Not that you’d find any real grounds for denial anywhere on the album, but this song is certainly about Shannon:
The night we met, we found out we were born on the same day
It was weird but kinda cute
And now it's weird, but fucking sucks
'Cause we broke up, and I'm scared that it'll never feel the same way
I hate that song without your name
And mine looks lonely on the cake
Where you gonna be on March 18th at 11:59?
What you gonna put your lips on now at midnight?
Like some sort of horrible cosmic joke, FLETCHER and Shannon Beveridge share a birthday. Any songwriter knows that this circumstance is perfect fodder for a heart wrenching song, which is exactly what we got:
Birthday girl, I think of you
I kinda wish I didn't, but I have to
I think FLETCHER is really brave for publicly admitting that she’s messed up over this relationship. I’ve been messed up! You’ve been messed up! We’ve all been there. It’s a common theme in songwriting, but it’s all the more affecting due to its unambiguity. It takes balls to release music like Girl of My Dreams.
Also featured on this playlist are all three members of 2021’s favorite love triangle: Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, and Sabrina Carpenter. By contrast, Olivia Rodrigo has still never explicitly confirmed nor denied that SOUR (2021) is even based on her relationship with Bassett. For that matter, Joshua Bassett has only obliquely referenced the drama, remaining publicly supportive of her career despite the lyrics which imply sentiments to the contrary in his song “Crisis:”
But don't you dare act like I didn't love you
Don't go thinkin' that I didn't hurt too
Don't you ever wonder if I'm okay after all you put me through?
Half the shit you're saying's only half true
You're messin' with my life as a career move
I can't help but wonder, why you won't make it end?
Sabrina Carpenter’s album emails i can’t send (2022) is another one of my favorite pop releases from this year, full of quippy, clever songs that mostly revolve around a breakup. She never explicitly addressed the triangle in press, but certainly referenced strikingly familiar details from the post-SOUR fallout in the content of the album itself, especially in “because i liked a boy:”
Now I'm a homewrecker, I'm a slut
I got death threats filling up semi trucks
Tell me who I am, guess I don't have a choice
All because I liked
I'm a hot topic on your tongue
I'm a rebound gettin' 'round stealin' from the young
Tell me who I am, guess I don't have a choice
All because I liked a boy
She gave a cheeky nod to the rumors at her Los Angeles show, one of the last of her most recent tour, but has generally steered interviews away from the topics of Bassett and Rodrigo both. I admire her poise in the face of such vicious hate from Rodrigo’s uniquely cruel fans, as well as her ability to make art out of a complicated situation.
As is always the case for me, the first and foremost criterion is that the songs are still good. These public couplings—and subsequent uncouplings—are good for promotion, but ultimately the quality of the writing and production are still central to my perception of the music. You’ll be seeing both Girl of My Dreams and emails i can’t send on my end-of-year playlist, because they’re both genius records, aside from the circumstances that inspired them.
I'd never heard of Fletcher, so took a listen. 'Becky's So Hot' is a good song, but it made me feel uncomfortable (after your background) listening to words she would surely be better, "moving on from!"