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

the cigarettes in the music video kind of gross me out tbh. also just me or she is not a very natural smoker? charli a social smoker?

This is like a skit (def feels like one, at that length). The video with mountains of cigarettes, her smoking about ten at a time, the limp drummer, the whole 90s gap/Calvin Klein etc look of the thing, it makes me think this might be an actual advert itself for the album or a piss take of one. Made me lol. Wonder if the whole album will be her sending up rock tropes. Maybe she's been listening to frank zappa.

it’s rock music but specifically based off of the flintstones riffing on “rock music”

Bug music!

I said Yeah Yeah Yeah
She said Yeah Yeah Yeah
They said Yeah Yeah Yeah

The Way Outs and Beau Brummelstones were good at least.

And of course Ann-Margrock.

Don't sleep on "The Bedrock Twitch"

Wait, Rock Roll was voiced by Hal Smith, who played Otis the Drunk on The Andy Griffith Show? Thread derail delivers!

"i keep thinking bout you every single day and night" is even less serious than "rock music"

it is a better tune though

if people think this seems slight in some way I would suggest to you its because the lil yachty inspo is actually the hook & ppl who have not internalized that as a creative breakthrough arent processing the comforting familiarity / thrill of the gesture

Charli XCX announced as a global brand ambassador and investor at Nothing a London based Smartphone Company, that also sell audio products (headphones and earbuds) and smartwatches.

NOTHING (CHARLI XCX)

Our first Global Brand Ambassador and latest Shareholder, Charli xcx brings her genre-crossing instincts to our new partnership. Together, we’re changing how things are done – with music and tech for a new generation.

“When I’m creating, I’m always thinking… pic.twitter.com/KUgIpxfA6a

— Nothing (@nothing) May 12, 2026

Charli xcx is joining Nothing as our latest Shareholder and our first Global Brand Ambassador.

This isn't a traditional endorsement deal. Charli is investing in Nothing and helping shape what we build from here.

The campaign today is just the start. Charli is the first of more… pic.twitter.com/kTMorITK4N

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) May 12, 2026

my earbuds just got a lot cooler lol

phones are neat looking buut that's about all?

if people think this seems slight in some way I would suggest to you its because the lil yachty inspo is actually the hook & ppl who have not internalized that as a creative breakthrough arent processing the comforting familiarity / thrill of the gesture

― ok (D-40), Monday, May 11, 2026

yah I love this track

The track feels like a teaser, which I guess is why it's the promo single. I like it fine but I want to hear what it's setting up. The flat intonation on "I'm really banging my head" is pretty funny. Ceci n'est pas un headbang.

go on girl give us nothing xxxp

Sometimes a headbang is just a headbang

Really, really love to watch her

lol ivy.

https://global.discourse-cdn.com/boingboing/original/3X/9/1/91a790f177bfc55948f5d247e6698509f07890cb.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twLhSqabby0

"ss26" is great

really like it as well

the super straight persistent quarter time high hat from the Charli album is back & i love it!

really like it as well

the super straight persistent quarter time high hat from the Charli album is back & i love it!

i really love the guitar tones here

nice bassline too

i'm also glad she's having fun with the lyrics

ss26 b-side
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYrwnFTh96G

lmao this rules

Yay, faith restored

Digging the new track

not digging the album art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJ2nAwg2uc

this one is like pop silent alarm so i love it

rather flagrant rip of The Teenagers

Wow, yes, it absolutely is.

yeah it absolutely is but it's also a significant improvement

I don't like the teenagers track at all, I think it's naff and tired, but I don't think she's improved anything. She's at a level that she could have acknowledged or reframed her theft to give them credit.

i was previously unfamiliar with "homecoming" and while "wink wink" is an obvious stylistic rip it's also a much better tune and isn't anywhere near as obnoxious

Love this one a lot.

Do like ss26 a lot but there's something borderline parodic about the tone of a lot of these songs so far. And I'm not sure rock ribbing is that interesting in 2026 when it's not front and centre culturally. Kinda think this is her taking the piss, having a laugh, doing a let me see what I can get away with album. Obv who knows what the final thing will be like!

The best bits in "Wink" aren't in the Teenagers track. Reminded me of Colin Newman - that repetitive one-note melody that somehow turns into a Huge Chorus

Hold on, David Cronenberg is on this album?

Full tracklist here -
https://www.instagram.com/p/Daf2HHYlCzr/?igsh=MTBld2NjczAwenozNg==

Magic Metal Montana

Hoping the cronenberg song is inspired by the shrouds (title sounds like it might be)

Does anyone else get a strokes demo/solo Casablancas vibe from ss26?

"camera" is floating out there because her team accidentally uploaded it to tiktok a few days ago or something and it's pretty good

i'm kinda expecting wuthering heights will be the better of her two albums this year but that doesn't mean this one is shaping up to be bad at all, if we get two very good charli albums this year i'm very happy

Yeah “Camera” is a lot of fun and certainly my favourite arrangement of the tracks released so far.

this is good but so far the only single that has felt fully formed to me is "wink wink". i feel like all the others merited at least one more go-around of the chorus, and this most recent one most of all.

that was a problem with wuthering heights too, all her songs are super short these days