Tattoo Flash

Cindy had a burn on her left arm that, she told me, was once a tattoo of a phoenix. "Thank God it wasn't any larger," she laughed.

It was only after Cindy and I broke up that I learned the full story - or, at least, the core of it. A party, a boyfriend shouting at her in the car park, and then something had exploded, burning his face. The witnesses were amazed at how much the fire looked like a bird of prey clawing at him. Far easier to claim that the explosion also scarred away Cindy's phoenix tattoo.

Recommendation

I’m obsessed by the last track on Music, Fashion, Film, Charli XCX’s new album. No-one Lasts Forever opens like the rest of the record, talking about Charli XCX’s life. Then, when the other songs would have finished - the final track is twice as long as any other on the record - there is a recording of David Cronenburg talking about death.

I was not aware of Charli XCX until the whole brat summer thing. Several singers I love turned up on the remix project Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat and I listened to that a fair bit. Then came the Wuthering Heights soundtrack. And, last month, we had Music, Fashion, Film.

I don’t know Charli XCX’s back catalogue, but I love the new album and I’ve played it a lot. It’s funny and opinionated and playful. The vocals sometimes remind me of George Pringle, one of my favourite singers. It’s a great record but, even so, that last track stands out. “They are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever”.