Charli XCX

Boom Clap is only a few months old. The Break The Rules video is out and features a Rose McGowan cameo!

Album out 20 Oct (UK) / 21 Oct (US)

i'm starting to love the synth after the chorus - actually it kind of IS the chorus? though the build-up feels over-egged both musically and lyrically to me still

The lyrics to this new one are really clunky and disappointing, despite the melody being insanely catchy.

The lyrics to Break the Rules and Boom Clap are really generic and let the songs down. Sad to thing just a year ago she came out with a line as brilliant as "I used to think that the power of love was just a song, but now it's got hold of me"

not really feeling "break the rules" at all. i'm excited she's getting her chance at a legit mainstream breakthrough tho. "boom clap" is closing in on #1 on top 40 radio.

the lyrics to boom clap are brilliantly generic imo, plenty of wide open space for you to fill in the blanks yourself. the music's doing all the meaningful work, poised right on the interstice between longing and fulfillment

I think i figured out one reason I like Boom Clap so much. It sounds just like, or gives me the same feeling as, golden-era Cyndi Lauper

the album got pushed back to mid december T_T

:(

The excuse is '"Boom Clap" is doing well' which to me sounds like a reason to strike while the iron's hot, if anything. I'll never understand labels.

They've already had a reasonably big pre-order campaign underway, so wtf.

Perhaps pre-orders weren't meeting expectations.

Maybe Break the Rules isn't doing as well as expected? Disappointed with this news whatever the reason.

Break The Rules hasn't done anything yet, but admittedly radio is probably still focussed on Boom Clap. I think it only got sent to Radio 1 playlists in the UK this week.

Boom Clap! Boom Clap! Come to our macaroni party and we'll take a nap.

album is pretty good but i still don't think she's fully found her voice yet

sorry if i missed it, but is there a tracklist for this thing yet?

itunes doesn't, wikipedia does:
1. "OK"
2. "Break the Rules"
3. "Seronja"
4. "Mow The Lawn"
5. "London Queen"
6. "Boom Clap"
7. "Make Believe"
8. "Need Your Love"
9. "Hangin' Around"
10. "Gold Coins"
11. "Breaking Up"
12. "Light It Up"
13. "Hey Molly!"

hey thanks!

Wish SuperLove was on there.

Agree! "Superlove" is the best of the post-"True Romance" singles, makes no sense to leave it out.

I think with the release of Boom Clap in hindsight I see Superlove as post-True Romance rather than pre-Sucker and will probably be added as a TR bonus track some day so am happy with it's absence in lieu of new tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H89R9K75eo

man "boom clap" is way more true romance than "superlove"

rip "superlove"

imo foregrounded bass guitar is a good ass look

*thumbs up*

13. "Hey Molly!"

pre-emptive strongest possible nope

I like to think that's a song about heaven's journalist cabal welcoming Molly Ivins to the afterlife.

Some solace for Katherine: "Hey Molly!" doesn't exist on the latest version of the album tracklisting on wiki, which seems to be constantly changing (curious, as I understood promos had gone out)

i like "london queen" :)

not even charli xcx is infallible, true romance had a brooke candy song

both "break the rules" and "london queen" pander way too much to youth imo? like they just ring kinda false to me. i feel sort of embarrassed listening to them.

actually "london queen" is pretty good even if it's sort of a rewrite of "i love it" -- i think my dislike of "break the rules" is infected

the little keyboard hook on "london queen" is pretty nifty

the keyboard hook is great, but there definitely is a playing young thing going on that oddly reverses the mature presence of her earlier singles

both "break the rules" and "london queen" pander way too much to youth imo? like they just ring kinda false to me. i feel sort of embarrassed listening to them.

― snrub goin up on a tuesday (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, October 7, 2014 11:10 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

blame "boom clap"

(plus I feel like most radio, promotion, etc. is now deliberately positioning her as teenpop. which goes to show how arbitrary a lot of this is, but fuck if I know where you'd write something like that anymore in 2014)

i really dislike "break the rules" but i love "london queen," glad there's a good inversion of the former's formula

true romance had such a teenpop appeal to it tho (the better parts imo) so it's not like this feels like some huge betrayal of her former values or aesthetic. i do agree that "break the rules" takes it to a slightly bizarre and uncomfortable extreme but i think she's convincing enough regardless.

see, I don't see true romance as teenpop at all, or if it is it's heavily filtered toward an '80s version of teenpop that no one recognizes as such anymore. (or toward jesus millions blogcore I guess)

love london queen :D

it's not teenpop-teenpop though, you'd never mistake even "break the rules" for idk aly & aj or hilary duff back in the day or whoever, because what actually marks teenpop out is that dead-serious sincerity. it's more knowing teenpop - not ironic, definitely affectionate, but something like "break the rules" mostly feels like dressing-up-as-an-ideal-of-teenpop (cf the carly rae jepsen album). it's to its credit that it still pulls it off though i have to say since that halcyon week of caning the thing repeatedly it hasn't stuck as much as i thought it would.

(this, btw, is why i find pc music and their fans so objectionable because pop DOES the dressing up/commenting on itself/idealising itself thing ALREADY and BETTER and a tru pop head would fucking know that)

pc music?

I dunno, I could see someone like Fefe Dobson or Shut Up Stella releasing it

To me, True Romance is the Shakespeare's Sister/Alisha's Attic axis of pop - gloomy textures with big choruses and universally-understood themes. The production is going to seem so of-its-time in a decade but I think her ability to write a chorus in any style is going to be what lasts.

Every criticism of "Superlove" as her attempt to be loved by everyone seems more valid when applied to "Break The Rules", it feels like it's so beneath what she's capable of. "London Queen" is fun in a goofy way but I'm not sure the power-pop-punk direction is where I wanted to see her go.

Heard a bunch of new songs at her concert and boy there is some clunkers out there, Gold Coins is head scratching bad and it isn't the only one. There is no coming back from I Love It it seems, not for the moment. Kids went absolutely nuts for Break The Rules, also no You're The One and Nuclear Seasons and Set Me Free left me a little bitter if not unsurprised.

oh anyone expecting this to be anything like true romance will be severely disappointed, charli's following the money

It sounds a lot like Republica in places.

I really got on board with Charli via Supa Ultra, which in retrospect now seems like this weird ultra-extreme of blogcoreness. Hard to believe now that she used to write songs with choruses that were just her chanting Justin Bieber's name over and over.

i have a weird kind of respect for the blunt stupidity of "break the rules", given the theme of the song. like, if that's what you feel then that's what you say. what was that line john lennon used? if you've fallen out of a boat you don't say "i'd quite like it if someone came to my aid"