Just in time for Halloween, Charli XCX redeems the bad rep that zombies have sustained in our culture and portrays them in an entirely different, refreshing light: as cotton candy pink-loving party animals, so devoted to having a good time in perpetuity they’re forever sustaining the after-after-after-party.
Other than in Warm Bodies, when have zombies been depicted so lovingly, as figures deserving empathy? I, for one, commend Charli and her cohort, Lil Yachty, for showing a different side of the maligned reanimated. These are creatures who are normally loved in life yet all but discarded by their friends and family once they rise from the dead and want to eat brains and entrails. You know who else wants to eat brains and entrails, people? Celebrity chef Mario Batali! You see what I’m getting at?
Of course, it does help that Charli’s zombie pals are almost exclusively young and hot, but so are Charli and Yachty; this is their vision of the club, and anything else could distract from the ultimate goal of zombie liberation. Also, it shows that zombies, too, love foam parties, which is something I never knew before. Thank you, Charli, for this educational romp through the nightlife proclivities of the undead. “After the Afterparty” is from her forthcoming third album. Happy Halloween!
