Originally conceived with her longtime collaborator A.G. Cook, Charli XCX played "Party 4 U" for the first time during the pair's joint set at the Nylon Japan 13th anniversary party on May 26, 2017. From there it lingered in a kind of musical limbo. But "Party 4 U" was never really gone; it just hadn't figured out where it belonged yet. When the COVID-19 lockdown arrived in 2020, bringing with it an unprecedented period of collective introspection and banana-bread-making, the song suddenly made perfect sense. Charli and A.G. Cook resurrected the track for her quarantine album How I'm Feeling Now, dusted it off, and gave it a new lease on life. She laid down a freshly recorded verse in her home studio, and Cook crafted a sweeping outro so affecting that Charli burst into tears upon hearing it.

For an album born in isolation, "Party 4 U" fit like a glove. Its theme - throwing a party for a love interest who doesn't come - felt less like the lament of an unrequited crush and more like the soundtrack to an entire year of canceled plans and eerily empty streets. To drive the point home, Charli sprinkled in live crowd noises from her 2019 Brixton Academy show, as if to remind us that, once upon a time, we could gather en masse without the creeping existential dread of airborne contagion.

Critics acclaimed When How I'm Feeling Now, which landed on many Best Albums of 2020 lists, including the top spot at Sputnik Music.