‘Beg For You’ Review: Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama Offer Nothing New

Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama’s 2022 single “Beg For You” toes the line between cover and original. Heavily sampling Charli XCX’s September’s 2007 Eurodance single “Cry For You,” the new single maintains the upbeat tempo and chord progression of its predecessor. Yet, with the addition of synthetic harp, smoother vocals, and cloying lyrics, “Beg For You” casts a sensual, bedroom-pop mood over the earlier single’s aggression. It adds layers of complexity to the original tune, but these layers aren’t drastic improvements, in the same way that TikTok covers imagining a song from another character’s point of view might form a nice trend but don’t exactly make their creators into pop stars.

The accented aggression of the rhythmic drive in the sampled tune turns into something rhythmically coquettish in the later single, the synthetic “percussion” always marked either by a complex texture of offbeats or, when the vocals are introduced, total absence. “You’ll never see me again / So now who’s gonna cry for you?” becomes “Don’t make me beg for you / ‘Cause I’ll beg for you.” With these stylistic and lyrical shifts, the relentlessly glib, insistently danceable original song sheds its bravado in favor of earnestness, dulled into a dreamy texture and punctuated by aspirated vocal maneuvers which sound like highly stylized crying, often paired with the repeated “Don’t leave me this way.”

The nostalgia in “Beg For You” comes from a blend of two of the main subcategories of 2000s pop: soulful, virtuosic vocals (think Christina Aguilera or Alicia Keys); and highly digitized, inventive tracks (think Britney Spears or Kylie Minogue). A ’70s-80s quasi-disco vibe we might recognize from Sawayama’s other work (particularly “Comme des Garçons”) can also be heard in her singing, along with the ‘90s and 2000s textures in the melodic samples and backing synthesizer. The stylistic sophistication of the vocals could stand on their own without the synthetic texture of the accompaniment. The same could be said of the backing track, sufficiently complex even if the singing is ignored. In contrast, neither the composition nor the vocals in “Cry For You” — timeless and recognizable as they are — are as important as the elements that make it danceable. “Beg For You” reimagines the earlier single, and the result is nice, but nothing that would earn it the iconic status of “Cry For You.” Charli XCX fans might find it disappointing compared to her more inventive, highly digitized hyperpop tracks. The single doesn’t fail, but neither does it dazzle.

The biggest strength here lies in the vocals. One might picture a ribbon, with one side made of velvet and the other a fine silk. This is how Rina Sawayama’s voice dances around the track, in a dense, forward chest voice one second and an airy, fluid falsetto the next. On first listen, little distinguishes her verse and Charli XCX’s, but with a little more attunement, Sawayama’s verse and the subsequent chorus prove to be something of a liquefied iteration of the initial stanzas: a relaxed turn from the signature, addictive whine of Charli’s youthful vocal comportment. Sawayama’s elegant movement in and out of head voice sounds poignant, almost soulful, because it articulates the limits of a confident belting voice. Conversely, in “Cry For You,” September only leaps into head voice in the chorus, on the word “cry.” This very literal form of text painting comes off as sarcastic. Sawayama’s voice is otherworldly, but also exquisitely human, which balances nicely with the artificial, highly digitized texture of the accompanying track. The ultimate result is a well-balanced, hedonic buffet: If Charli’s sturdy belt invites us to sing-scream along with her, Sawayama’s balletic mix asks us to dance.