As we approach the first anniversary of Charli xcx and Troye Sivan’s SWEAT Tour, I’ve found myself diving back into Charli’s discography — a neon-tinted timeline of chaos, grief, and self-reinvention. “Pop 2,” a 2017 mixtape that feels like heartbreak processed through a strobe light, might just be Charli’s most cohesive vision and a standout in her work. 

No song embodies “Pop 2” better than “Tears,” her haunting, high-gloss duet with Caroline Polachek that turns emotional overload into something almost transcendent. The track feels alive and unstable, consisting of sputtering synths, slicing percussion, and Polachek’s glassy vocals colliding with Charli’s distorted ones. In the second chorus, faint screams hide in the background, warping into the beat like ghosts in the machine. It’s unsettling yet euphoric, representing the sound of breaking down and finding catharsis all at once.

Beneath the auto-tune and digital polish lies a devastating honesty: the sound of refusing to let go of a relationship already slipping away. “Tried to hide the lies when we touch / But in the sheets with no love / Tears are rollin’ down my face” feels less like a chorus and more like a looped confession, circling back onto itself until it collapses. “Tears” is raw, messy, and unmistakably human — proof that even in Charli’s synthetic world, heartbreak will always find a way to make itself heard.

Listen to the rest of the playlist here!