Charli - Charli XCX: Review
is a British pop singer who rattled off a big hit single as well as a huge feature with Iggy Azealia earlier this decade. Since then though she has mainly reserved herself for a devoted cult following as she receives moderate chart success but major critical acclaim. After having a busy and lucrative 2017 Charli geared up for the release of this self-titled record last year with a breakout lead single and by announcing a number of high profile collaborations leading up to the records release.
Review By Lavender:
As far as liking Charli XCX's music goes, I go way back. While her earliest MySpace stuff may have missed me by the time True Romance came out in 2013 I was tuned in and enjoying it quite a bit. She took a big step up the next year with her breakout record Sucker. While the record may have only had one huge hit in the excellent Boom Clap, the album had a ton of worthwhile moments and was a standout in 2014. Since then Charli has been sparse about releasing studio projects, with the underwhelming Number 1 Angel mixtape and the absolutely excellent Pop 2 mixtape. Thankfully during this time Charli has kept everything fresh with a number of excellent singles, as well as one of the best EP's of this entire decade Vroom Vroom which saw her recruiting producer SOPHIE to make some blistering and insane futuristic pop. Given how many singles there were for this project I knew a lot going into it, but the record managed to still be a surprise and a treat.
The most talked about and anticipated part of Charli was the numerous high profile features that appear across the album and populated all of the singles released in the lead up to the album, almost all of which land effectively. Some of the best ones are the ones that pair with Troye Sivan, starting with a track that made it on my singles of the year list last year 1999. The song is a breezy and catchy nostalgic pop tune that throws it back to the late 90's with amazing performances and even better songwriting. 2099 is the other point Troye Sivan appears, as well as the closing track on the album, and one of my favorites. The track is a wild futuristic banger with an insane electronic beat and ice cold cutthroat performances from both Charli and Troye that match the incredible coldness of the tune for a seriously killer experimental moment as the outro.
Another one of the brilliant collaborations here is Gone with Christine And The Queens. The track is a flat out amazing electronic power ballad where Charli sings perfectly over the rumbling waves of percussion and the vocalists unite for one of the best hooks of Charli's entire career in what may be the best of the singles for the record. Shake It is another killer posse cut that features Big Freedia, Cupcakke, Brooke Candy and Pablo Vittar in a horror pop banger. Charli's stark whispering over the hook and some fantastic verses from the features all around. Cross You Out was another single I loved and while it isn't the best song here it features an absolute tour de force performance from the always excellent Sky Ferreira that steals the show.
A few of the features go over pretty well without necessarily being among the best songs here. Click is a track with a huge SOPHIE influence in the instrumental and it totally reminds me of something from Vroom Vroom. The song has a badass hook but Kim Petras steals the show with her great feature and while I don't hate the Tommy Cash feature here, it isn't nearly as solid as his contribution on Pop 2. Blame It On Your Love is a song I haven't loved quite as much as everyone else but I do still think it's pretty good. Charli's hook is pretty tight and the instrumental is punchy but none of the verses from either Charli or Lizzo really do a ton for me and ultimately I think it is one of the more average moments on the project. Finally Charli teams up with Clairo and Yaeji on February 2017 a pretty solid moment towards the end of the record that sees the artists sounding better together than I would have anticipated and ultimately being a solid deep cut.
The only track with a feature that I flat out didn't like was Warm with HAIM. The styles just clash so badly and it sounds like 2013 Charli trying to write a really by the numbers pop tune and HAIM is clearly so much more focused on the type of track they are trying to make and I still don't really like any of the singing that comes from the sisters. This crisp pop music approach shows up on some of my other least favorite songs here too, Official is the biggest offender of a track that sounds more like a Taylor Swift song than a Charli XCX one. It's a painfully dry ballad with no sharp edges and no real redeeming moments.
The rest of the songs see Charli by herself and also have a pretty consistent execution level. Next Level Charli is the opening song and is the sonic equivalent of musical evolution as it gets the album going with a sharp electronic ballad that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Thoughts has an awesome shrill icy sliding key line that dominates the instrumental, seeing as Charli's willingness to push the envelope when it comes to pop music is one of my favorite qualities of hers it should be no surprise that this ballad was one of my favorites. Silver Cross sounds like some of SOPHIE's brighter tunes, a mix of Immaterial and It's Okay To Cry but Charli isn't quite as enthusiastic as SOPHIE is on the respective songs. Despite this it has an explosive final chorus and has a pretty daring instrumental given how lowkey it is.
I Don't Wanna Know is another icy ballad where Charli gets genuine and intimate with a powerful and impassioned vocal performance. The songwriting is very sharp and despite being one of the slower paced tracks it manages to please and makes the last pair of songs on the record a treat. My favorite of the Charli solo songs and maybe my favorite song on the entire record is White Mercedes an absolutely killer multi-dimensional love ballad with some of Charli's most impassioned vocals on the entire record and one of my favorite hooks I've ever heard her sing. From the moment I first heard this track it instantly became a favorite of mine and rivals most of my favorite Charli songs in her discography.
Charli is the most complete we have heard Charli XCX yet as she combines the incredible personality of Sucker with the thirst for experimentation of Pop 2 and Vroom Vroom to create a project that is entirely her own, and fittingly self-titled. The record is a consistent series of pleasing tracks with well picked out and executed features that is piled on top of an already brilliant year for pop music and makes it an even more thrilling one as she matches her contemporaries in Kim Petras, Carly Rae Jepsen and Melanie Martinez by releasing her own excellent project in 2019. 8/10
For more futuristic pop music check out my review of Kim Petras' Clarity here
