Charli XCX

No thread on her yet. Her two singles released this year ('stay away', 'nuclear seasons') got the 'best new track' feature on Pitchfork and TheSinglesJukebox rated the later with a 7.83 which is quite a high score by their standards. Also it seems she's been getting the love by british press for a few years now, but I can't confirm that firsthand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBxC5bRbruQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1GNx2bwZa4

Is she named after a Star Trek episode?

From interview magazine http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/brit-pop-girls#_ :

CHARLI XCX
FULL NAME: Charlotte Aitchison. “The XCX really stands for ‘kiss Charli kiss’ which is unbelievably crap.”

AGE: 17.

PROVENANCE: Hertfordshire.

SOUND: Pouty raps, fuzzy basslines.

INTERVIEW: How long have you been making music?
CHARLI XCX: I started writing my own things when I was about 8. I used to try to bully my friends into imitating the Spice Girls on the playground. Then I realized, Oh god, my career’s going nowhere, so I looked in the Yellow Pages and phoned up the first cheap studio that I found and started recording.
INTERVIEW: What’s your song “I Wanna Be Darth Vader” about?
CHARLI XCX: Well, last night on Britain’s Got Talent, there was this absolute twat dancing to
Michael Jackson in a Darth Vader suit, which put me off a bit, but I used to think Darth Vader was really sexy—the mask, the voice, the heavy breathing, and the way that his cape whooshes when he walks.
INTERVIEW: What’s your grand plan?
CHARLI XCX: Well, there are a huge amount of girls out at the minute and they’re all great, but I feel like I could take them all on. I like Lady Gaga’s music and I think her fashion is great, but I saw her on a chat show and I wanted to punch her in the face. I kind of like La Roux, but her voice sometimes really annoys me. That said, I recently noticed that I’ve been doing really high notes in my songs, and I’m like, Oh no, here it comes. I’m going to turn into La Roux. And I’ve just gotten a massively short haircut with a huge fringe. Next I’ll be going ginger.

God bless all these musicians before their PR agents get to them and they actually give fun interviews.
Great songs, by the way.

Whoops, meant to say "God bless all these youngish musicians while they're still giving fun interviews, before their PR agents get to them."

kinda confused by seeing people have their minds blown by her. she's ok i guess, need to hear way more though - i like what i've heard but i'm not fully convinced for some reason, seems a touch heavy-handed

Stay Away is definitely one of my favorites this year. Nuclear Seasons, not really.

Totally into "Nuclear Seasons" and I think I'm gonna go see her tomorrow at her first US show (!)

i love stay away. and valentine. haven't heard anything else other than nuclear seasons which a lot of people seem to like but i don't really get

the chorus in this is great http://soundcloud.com/charlixcx/youre-the-one/s-pU6Fs

Still waiting for something as good as Stay Away. Not even the Icona Pop song is close imo.

okay so this "super ultra" mixtape is just ridiculously great

It is!

cosign! this is probably the closest an album has come to approximating the feel of maxinquaye for me, sounds amazing late at night. rapping over "moments in love" is p much a direct route to my heart. it's a little messy, but the songs are really there. also i didn't realize she was only 20--she'll probably go for leaner production choices in the future.

Everything is consistently excellent. Also "Heatwave" is my jam.

It's almost as if... Someone made tumblr-pop that justified the adjectives and lurid colourscapes.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/14932-various-artists-you-ha-ha-ha-lindstrm-remix/

Lindstrøm gives this shit a proper workout.

i really have no idea what to make of this album, like even whether i'm enjoying it or not

i feel like i'm on the brink of being completely YESSSSS THIS IS RESONATING DEEPLY WITH ME but i can't...quite...get...there and it's the kind of thing where if you're NOT on board emotionally it's kind of functionally useless

"you're the one" is a bit of a monster though

albeit i think i might like "you're the one" better if it didn't plunge shamelessly into its cheesy chorus?

the brooke candy verse on this is disappointingly terrible

have't heard the album but from the singles can attest that if you're on board emotionally they are the best ever

there's a vagueness that keeps me from being emotionally on board "you're the one" but that curving bass

really love the lingering the verses do on "you (ha ha ha)" too

Does she have her own "I Love It" on this? I am still curious to hear what she would have done with it instead of Icona Pop.

I'm into this newest single "what I like". she has a knack for cadence

streaming over @ pitchfork advance

This has very big Alisha's Attic vibes writ large all over it. It's a modern pop album that seems designed for people who grew up in the 90s, which is probably either really cute and endearing, or naff and silly, depending on your taste for talky-sung verses in the style of Siobhan Fahey when in Shakespeare's Sister.

Charli XCX herself seems very much a pop starlet for the twenty-something crowd, in the way she nonchalantly swears and sings about sexual encounters but it's all framed in this goth-pop cuteness with easy melodies and simple vivid imagery. I can see this album's relationship to 90's r&b being comparable to the way Anniemal took 80's disco and made it sound very pop but very chic, even though this is a lot more obviously dark and menacing.

aka the awful song with Brooke Candy made me nervous but I even don't mind that in the context of the album and You (Ha Ha Ha) is actually better than I remembered and the rest of it is great. The first three singles are still the best stuff here especially Nuclear Seasons but this is a pretty wonderful pop album.

as extravagant as charli's overload of stylistic reference points is, i don't think it's what's preventing this clicking for me - basically just don't think her songwriting is quite there yet. it's a bit overstuffed but the problem is less that and more her lack of a really distinct songwriting voice

or just, interesting words, or something

i think i'm the only person in the world that doesn't hate the brooke candy song. the second-to-last one "how can i" would be the dud if i had to pick one

You're not alone. Cloud Aura is one of her best. That said, True Romance is a let-down for me largely due to the production. My favorite track is What I Like, but even it has it's problems. Like why start of with a great intro that gets you all hyped up, only to never reference it anywhere else in the song? Still love it, but that's just one example of the many opportunities missed by this album. I expected it to be much more in the vein of Dance 4 U and Velvet Dreaming but the album's first half is like a 90's rehash of what Little Boots was doing with 80's pop.

I've been cool on her other singles but "What I Like" is marvelous.

this is awesome; the two-year-old songs thread in pretty seamlessly

weird but so far i prefer the album tracks to most of the singles (except "what i like" which wow). "like roses" and "take my hand" especially

black roses*

Really, really, really good record.

after seeing her live last week this album is finally seriously beginning to click for me

in a way i'm glad the singles never quite did it in isolation because i get to feel the rush of "YOU'RE JUST ELECTRIC BLUE" now instead

CUZ I CAN TASTE YOUR LIPS ON MY LIPS
YOUR KISSES TAKE ME OUT OF CONTROL
AND I CAN FEEL MY BLOOOOOOOOD
IT'S CRAWLING THROUGH MY VEEEEEEIIIIIIIINS

somewhere, shirley manson feels proud

brooke candy's rap on "cloud aura" is so so bad but the rest of it is so good

WHY YOU WANNA GO TO SLEEP
DON'T GO TO SLEEP
DON'T GO TO SLEEP
LET'S GO OUUUUUT

hmmm i gave this album a couple spins last week but i only actually liked about half of it (mostly the front half, but some later too), the rest just became this amorphous blur of whatever

it's taken me about a month and about...8 or 9 plays, i guess, to click

YOU'RE JUST ELECTRIC BLUUUUUUE is wonderful. all of this is wonderful.

except for brooke candy

Is "cloud aura" the same as on last year's mixtape?

yeah no changes as far as i can tell

"set me free" is ENORMOUS and shoulda been the lead-off single instead of "you"

I still don't get why "I Love It" didn't get the praise this is getting, I know it's noisy and brash but that's kinda the point?

This keeps getting better on repeated listens, it's not so much that it's a grower as

"Girls Night Out" makes me wish I was a girl and I could have a night out

only know Number One Angel but love it, what else should i hear

absolutely love 'true romance' from start to end, serves as a good intro imo

thanks nxd

whereas I like the Rock Charli of Sucker, which I like allllmost beginning to end (i start fading a couple of tracks from the end)

Pop 2 is just Number 1 Angel but way better so that's what I'd recommend next. True Romance is pretty good too

thanks, you are all too sweet

"siri, pls take anne-marie's '2002' and lose the anachronisms, and make it a bit more believable, oh, and throw a donk on it, and a bit of house piano too"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRkB8FlkmVM

we don't need the young wolverine on the song :(

He was 4 in 1999.

this kicks ass

Troye's crushing on Johnathan Taylor Thomas is cute, but otherwise this is pretty much the Ready Player One of music: depthless pop culture nostalgia from an artist (Charli, here) who should know better.

this is pretty good but it's no "No Angel" which is one of her best ever tracks

literally pick any random song off the charts from 1999 and it's likely to be significantly better than this song

almost offended b/c i have extremely fond memories of 1999 and its pop music

New song with Lizzo forthcoming?

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/charli-xcx-announces-new-music-landing-this-week

oh that's interesting, a demo of "blame it on your love" leaked a while ago (like all her stuff does lol) and it was the basis for what eventually became "track 10" but had a much more conventional verse/chorus structure so i wonder if this is going to keep the same hook from "track 10"?

she said on twitter her new material is 'kind of a continuation of pop 2' which can only be a good thing, pop 2 was so so good. "backseat" and "track 10" remain some of the most thrilling tracks of the decade

it's Track 10 but not as good, yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Q4ttXokGs

Sucker still such a fantastic album. Doing It is so great

Charli came out to do Can't Stop w/Miley Cyrus at Big Weekend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6pTRxl7h8g

seems v difficult to recreate the magic of track 10

ufo otm

Track 10 is ace, but was always a remix of "Blame it on Your Love" according to the stuff I read. It's not being recreated, it's just the original track without SOPHIE's amazing sensibilities for isolating the broken digital heart in the middle of it all. Obviously they dropped one of Charli's verses (my favourite) to make way for Lizzo, but the vocal is otherwise the same.

scratch that, I'm an idiot, relistening to Track 10 it's clearly a different vocal (and magic)

angels, my new album ‘Charli’ is out September 13th. i am so proud of this music and i cannot wait for the world to hear it. pre order ‘Charli’ now and come and see my on my world tour!! 💓 full details here: https://t.co/3p0fkPqmAC pic.twitter.com/4BBXGPtAPk

— CHARLI XCX (@charli_xcx) June 13, 2019

Cautiously anticipating.

clips from the primavera performance of "gone" (intermittent shrieks of "REINA!!!" notwithstanding) were very promising

so many features...

it’s charli baby

As a 50ish guy I will be mildly embarrassed when the sleeve art pops up on my listening device in public. Because I am betting I am going to be listening to this a lot.

man, if you had told me in 2012 sky ferreira and charli xcx were doing a track together I'd be... way more excited than I am now that they actually are

wonder if it's this https://www.nme.com/news/music/charli-xcx-42-1230812

2099 feat Troye Sivan

Wonder if this is a new song of just some form of remix?

Ok - new song:

Charli XCX, a pop artisan who willingly and readily bends the conventions of the genre, used a pyramid of steps as her backdrop for an invigorated, albeit bare, set. She began with “Blame It On Your Love,” a reimagined version of Pop 2 fan favorite “Track 10” that now features Lizzo. Clad in what could easily pass as a fashionable spandex biking ensemble and a tailored pink feather jacket, she ran through fan favorites: “Focus,” “Boys” and “Spicy,” the Spice Girls re-take she just released with Diplo and Herve Pagez. But the clear standout was the debut of what’s alleged to be called “2099,” a collaboration with Sivan. And just prior, to celebrate Sivan’s birthday, which transpired the day prior, she brought out a cake and enlisted the crowd to sing him happy birthday: “I can’t sing without Auto-Tune so you guys have got to help me sing,” she said.

“2099” is markedly different than “1999,” without any of the tinkering instrumentation or exacting melodies that made it such a pop juggernaut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chSZCtLrgz8

this one's pretty good

this rules

Kind of fun listening to it become increasingly apparent that A.G. Cook has a production credit on that
Also his love for Rhythm Nation-era Jam & Lewis showing through a bit on the coda, which I love

Incredible song and video!

Is there any chance this can be the huge hit it deserves to be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGrxBmyiMls

what the fuck is this shit

why has charli willingly contributed to the alarmingly vast wave of pseudo-covers of late-80s-thru-early-00s hits excreted by the edm industry over the past five years

not that she's incapable of her own brand of misguided garbage but damn

i sort of prefer the... trollishness of this compared to "1999" which strikes me as abjectly lazy songwriting dressed up as a concept

not that this doesn't suck in its own specific ways

considering that she's just a feature on it i've been willing to mostly blame diplo and whoever herve pagez is for that

Spicy is definitely one of the worst songs she's ever been involved with, but Gone is one of the best. It's exhausting being a fan of hers sometimes.

I've been going back to Pop 2 a lot recently. It didn't really click with me when it came out and I actually thought Number 1 Angel was much stronger. I'm definitely seeing why people were so excited about it now.

i still adore Pop 2, it's both her best release and by far the best thing to come out of anything related to PC Music. "Backseat", "Tears", "Unlock It" and "Track 10" are all especially thrilling

Man, that “Spicy” track/video is an abomination

When your label regards you as barely a notch above the writing-camp set you occasionally have to suck it up and do the job that a “Spicy” requires of you
Presumably she had a decent amount of fun making it, at least

she performed the song at pitchfork fest this past weekend which would indicate she is not a hostage in this situation

Heh, seems like I am alone in enjoying Spicy then.

I’m pretty interested to see what she does in terms of her set list for this upcoming headline tour. It’s been years since she’s toured properly - her shows for the last 3-4 years have either been opening for larger acts (T-Swift, Halsey), ravier “parties” (mostly in the wake of Pop 2) in a small number of cities and in small venues, or random club shows like the one with SOPHIE in LA at the end of 2016 where she played most of what would’ve constituted the now scrapped XCX World album. That’s meant a lot of inconsistency in an attempt to cater to different audiences - the Taylor show attendees got “Boom Clap” and “Fancy”, while at the club parties she’d bring out Caroline Polachek for “Tears” or whatever. I guess she’ll play a lot of songs from the new record on this new tour - hopefully a track or two from the first two albums makes the cut ahead of “Spicy”.

xp: Its certainly not her best, but I don't think it's particularly bad. I'm not too familiar with the source material.

I loorv it!

WTF?!

I'm not too familiar with the source material.

it's the second-best pop single of the '90s!

I was mostly listening to too much phish and sublime at the time unfortunately. I know the chorus to Wannabe but couldn't recognize the verses.

Sounds like a good homework assignment is to listen to Spice. :D