Charli – XCX-iting Futuristic Experimental Pop at its best
Charli XCX dropped her latest album on Friday 13th September 2019, her new album ‘Charli’ promising to be her most personal work to date.
Charli XCX is most well known for song ‘Boom Clap’ which featured in he film the fault in our stars. Charli is also known for her hit features on Iggy Azalea’s Fancy and Icona Pop’s I Love It (which Charli originally wrote)
Charli’s musical career changed when she dropped Her Vroom Vroom EP in which she debuted her new style inspired by PC Music and produced by experimental pop artist/producer SOPHIE. The song Vroom Vroom features loud,clunky, metallic beats with a super pop chorus, the hard instrumental and spoken word verses giving the song an extra edge. These songs won her a cult following, but not so much mainstream success.
Charli later released two mix tapes ‘Number 1 Angel’ and ‘Pop 2’, these mixtapes were met with critical acclaim especially ‘Pop 2’. A. G. Cook Head of PC Music was a producer on both mixtapes and also co-produced Charli’s new album. In between these releases she released stand alone single ‘Boys’ a more digestible offering for the mainstream crowd.
Anyway…After a hacked a google drive, a few standalone singles and two mixtapes the much talked about 3rd album has finally now been released! And this album is crazy in the best way! I imagine this glitchy futuristic pop style to not be everyone’s cup of tea (Click’s outro sounds like your speaker exploding) but I love how fresh it sounds especially in today’s pop music landscape.
A vast amount of the album features collaborative tracks with artists such as Christine and the Queens, Lizzo, Haim,Cupcakke, Brooke Candy and Troye Sivan. On the collaborations Charli is in full on party mode and on the solo tracks she seems to be brought back down to reality as she sings on ‘White Mercedes’ “I hate the silence, that’s why the music’s always loud” which perfectly sum up these quieter, more stripped back solo tracks.
Social anxiety anthem ‘Gone’ featuring Christine and The Queens, finishes with an brilliantly addictive glitchy break down, which perfectly replicates the feelings of the song’s protagonists.
It seems that ‘I Got It’ from Pop 2 was a blue print for ‘Shake It’, looped sample from charli? Check! Cupcakke, Brooke Candy and Pablo Vittar?Check,check,check! Big Freida also teams up on the track. A completely bonkers track which gets crazier and crazier with Charli’s vocals getting chopped and changed through out,
On 2099 Charli teams up once again with Troye Sivan to gives us a weird, crazy, chaotic, alien sounding Bop! The beginning sounds like an alien spaceship engaging the tractor beam and it literally ends with a bang! (And some alien interference)
Track 10 from ‘Pop 2’ gets a re-working on ‘Blame It On Your Love’ with a new instrumental and verse from Lizzo. I wasn’t sure what to think of this new spin on ‘Track 10’ when it was released as the first single but it has definitely grown on me, I do wish Lizzo’s verse was slightly longer though!
One of my favourites of the album has got to be White Mercedes, but then again who doesn’t love a good ballad? Its a sweet a song and probably the most for lack of better words ‘normal’ of the whole album.
My top 3 songs from the album are White Mercedes, Gone and February 2017 (I love how different the structure of this song is to most songs)
For me this album cements Charli’s status as a great experiment pop artist finally creating the kind of music they want to make.
P.S. I have recently added some new cards to my etsy shop including the “Happy Birday!” and “Toucan do this!”, I’ve also added some more pocket mirrors. Click here to check out my shop!
