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

It's slightly let down by a few songs on the second half. Hanging Around and Caught In The Middle definitely feel like filler.

Shame Charli has written that album off now. I guess it wasn't a great time for her with all her label issues. That was one messy album campaign.

Agree the second half is uneven but Hanging Around is glorious imo

I wanna learn to speak Japanese
Razor-sharp on the silver screen
You were made for a limousine
So get your shit now and come with me

I now realise I had neglected to put in the time with "how I'm feeling now" and it is of course a glorious masterwork, every track gives me pop chills

new song with no rome & the 1975: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wlz9tc5UQA

that image hurts my eyes

Sounds like a July song more than a March song, but I like it! A little too concise, maybe? Don't know No Rome, but a pretty faithful melding of their two styles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

lol wrong thread

She finally has a song I like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twu2y32ccM4

justice for "superlove"! i do like it better than the actual version lol (tho it's not bad!)

i giggled at the existence of a dedicated 'tiktok music' youtube channel

(i guess i should clarify i mean tinashe's "superlove," since charli also has a good song by that title lol)

like the original version of that Charli song better than the tiktok variant, but it’s fine

my new song 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐎𝐧𝐞𝐬 arrives on September 2nd. get ready to surrender 🩸 pre save now. happy birthday to me 🖤⚰️🥀 https://t.co/vWV9CrELr5 pic.twitter.com/ItGTEcVw5d

— Charli (@charli_xcx) August 2, 2021

announcing a single a month out is weird

tbf she said it's a "song" and it's her birthday so the possibility is high it's just a one-off

is there a specific 80s hair metal cover that image is a parody of or is it just a vibe?

looks more like a Taylor Dayne -type sleeve than a hair metal reference to me

The font, the background color wash, the "I'm crawling sensually on top of a Corvette but there's no Corvette" pose, it all reads hair metal to me, but I have zero mental picture of what a Taylor Dayne sleeve would look like

how exciting that i get to pre-save a song that comes out in a month

maybe it's just a generically hot 80s chick

i'd be surprised if it's a one-off, she's been indicating an album's on the way this year for a while now

This is from a few weeks ago:

evil era incoming 😈

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 14, 2021

Which she expounded on a few days later

i hate this idea of things needing to be labeled “right” or “wrong” or “appropriate” or “inappropriate ” within any type of art. if there is no upset or debate or controversy or questioning, then what’s the point of creating?

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 18, 2021

i dont create to be “correct” i create because of how i feel. to me art is feeling & feelings are not black or white or clear cut. they are messy & ever changing like their human creators. if art isnt emotionally triggering in some way, positive or negative, then is it even good?

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 18, 2021

I hope "evil era" means that it's an album of songs inspired by the critically-acclaimed Paramount+ show Evil

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p09rfbrp

not very good so far tbrr

I keep putting "Charli" on during work to get some energy going but then I get to Blame It On Your Love into White Mercedes and feel weepy

anyone know what this was about?

pic.twitter.com/5PrWVBwoDB

— Charli (@charli_xcx) August 15, 2021

She has also said something like rip hyperpop on her insta this week. Think it is just a change of direction, a 80s pop charli is coming. I presume Sophie’s death also has had an effect on her want to move away from her signature sound/look.

oh sick, we needed one of our few genuinely idiosyncratic popstars to start making 80s pop, nobody else is doing that right now

The old Charli can't come to the phone right now...
Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead!

bring back rock Charli and even the bad podcast will be forgiven

shitty rip of the single leaked & it's pretty bad unfortunately

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

the song feels a little unfinished, but i love the video's aesthetics

the song isn't terrible but she's capable of so much better

oh sick, we needed one of our few genuinely idiosyncratic popstars to start making 80s pop, nobody else is doing that right now

― imago, Monday, 16 August 2021 18:52 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's also her most Marina-esque single in a long while, in case you needed reminding that they're m8s

not bad. reminds me of Dragonette a bit.

m8s who argue over "familiar fruit" moments, sure

no hang on, I think I'm thinking of Stefy - Chelsea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq3wYJzE8T8

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

better but still a little too restrained

seems OK

she previewed a bunch of the album & i'm no longer worried at all about this album, seems like singles are likely the least interesting by a fair way

pic.twitter.com/gbvnZPgySB

— @FckyeahCharli / Charli XCX Updates Media (@fckyeahcharliHD) November 4, 2021

pic.twitter.com/Urv8QDoVYN

— @FckyeahCharli / Charli XCX Updates Media (@fckyeahcharliHD) November 4, 2021

pic.twitter.com/gCBu2CC3FB

— @FckyeahCharli / Charli XCX Updates Media (@fckyeahcharliHD) November 4, 2021

pic.twitter.com/5S1VMmNx7x

— @FckyeahCharli / Charli XCX Updates Media (@fckyeahcharliHD) November 4, 2021

Some great sounding stuff there, that last one in particular sounds like it could be a stone-cold banger if the chorus lives up to the intro and verse.

god i cannot wait.

Whether or not it's on it, did she really not tease "Taxi" here to drive the fans nuts?

Gonna wait. Not out tol March 18. Literally the future of pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tvW25Qu5WE

legit disappointed with the Rosalia video, then this -
the performers are doing fine but the directing/editing and maybe concept are just so (yawn)

and still not really feeling the song

but then i'm the one guy who dislikes polachek

one?

oops i like "new shapes"