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
― monotony, Thursday, 11 April 2013 13:03 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Cousin Slappy, Thursday, 11 April 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
I've been cool on her other singles but "What I Like" is marvelous.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 April 2013 17:47 (ten years ago) link
this is awesome; the two-year-old songs thread in pretty seamlessly
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:53 (ten years ago) link
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
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link
black roses*
Really, really, really good record.
― monotony, Wednesday, 17 April 2013 01:59 (ten years ago) link
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
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, 22 April 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
CUZ I CAN TASTE YOUR LIPS ON MY LIPSYOUR KISSES TAKE ME OUT OF CONTROLAND I CAN FEEL MY BLOOOOOOOODIT'S CRAWLING THROUGH MY VEEEEEEIIIIIIIINS
somewhere, shirley manson feels proud
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, 22 April 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link
brooke candy's rap on "cloud aura" is so so bad but the rest of it is so good
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, 22 April 2013 20:01 (ten years ago) link
WHY YOU WANNA GO TO SLEEPDON'T GO TO SLEEPDON'T GO TO SLEEPLET'S GO OUUUUUT
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 22 April 2013 20:02 (ten years ago) link
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
― dyl, Monday, 22 April 2013 20:03 (ten years ago) link
it's taken me about a month and about...8 or 9 plays, i guess, to click
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, 22 April 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link
YOU'RE JUST ELECTRIC BLUUUUUUE is wonderful. all of this is wonderful.
except for brooke candy
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 22 April 2013 21:02 (ten years ago) link
Is "cloud aura" the same as on last year's mixtape?
― Tim F, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:33 (ten years ago) link
yeah no changes as far as i can tell
― monotony, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:42 (ten years ago) link
"set me free" is ENORMOUS and shoulda been the lead-off single instead of "you"
― monotony, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:43 (ten years ago) link
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
― boxedjoy, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:50 (ten years ago) link
something else that I was thinking of how to explain before I hit enter, oops. It's like it's really simple but sticks way more than the disposable pop she clearly adores.
― boxedjoy, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:51 (ten years ago) link
I love that mixtape so much but "Cloud Aura" wouldn't be the tune I'd carry over from it.
― Tim F, Monday, 22 April 2013 22:51 (ten years ago) link
i never heard the mixtape - how does it compare to the album tim?
"i love it" is just completely rotten imo
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 07:52 (ten years ago) link
I haven't heard the album so I can't compare - but the mixtape is shimmering cloud-R&B which by that description should be awful but actually is excellent - "Cloud Aura" is pretty indicative of the overall sound but there's some more discoid and/or balladic stuff on there and there's no other raps.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 07:58 (ten years ago) link
There are some songs down the end of Super Ultra that could have slotted in fine, on here but for the most part the album is much stronger, which of course it was always going to be given that it has all those pre-release singles on it.
I'm a big fan of "I Love It" (which has had plenty of praise, btw - perhaps not on ILX but certainly elsewhere), but it's not something that would gel with the rest of this record at all; too daphne & celeste / bananarama. it's pummelling, brash, throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air-sometimes sort of stuff; none of the songs on true romance even remotely approach that kind of aggression.
― monotony, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:11 (ten years ago) link
and yes there is a stray comma in that first sentence, oops
― monotony, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:12 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, "I Love It" would sound totally out of place on this but I think it's strange that there's so much dislike for it on its own.
― boxedjoy, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
"i love it" did really well on the ilm poll despite not being overwhelmingly praised here (and met with boos and hisses during the results rollout)
― dyl, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 22:58 (ten years ago) link
yeah i'd be interested to learn what is quite so rotten about "i love it" - as was mentioned upthread, obviously it's loud and obnoxious - but that's the whole purpose of the track, to convey that feeling of just not giving a fuck
― monotony, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 23:06 (ten years ago) link
I don't _love_ it as much anymore, but I like it in the same way I like Shampoo. And it's not like Icona Pop didn't sound more or less like this for years, so it's not like they "sold out" or whatever accusation you want to level.
― katherine, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 23:07 (ten years ago) link
at any rate this album is amazing. and yes, "Set Me Free" is massive but it doesn't seem to be the direction Charli XCX wants to go with her singles. alas.
― katherine, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 23:20 (ten years ago) link
(incidentally, the "Set Me Free" producer's best known for working with _Meds_-era Placebo, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Nicola Roberts and Sohodolls, which is as good a triangulation [uh, with "tri-" replaced with "quad-" as necessary] of this album as you'll find anywhere.)
― katherine, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link
"i love it" feels clumsy and contrived and, crucially, totally unfun to me. i like don't-give-a-fuck music but it just repels me.
(katherine - picking up something i half-saw on twitter last night if i may, which is prob relevant here - your dislike of "tumblr" as a signifier. i'd say tumblr - regardless of the pockets of tumblr where this isn't the case - signifies decontextualisation above all to me, whether that's endless images/quotes plucked from the ether or the social justice kids or whatever...)
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 07:48 (ten years ago) link
oh, and GREAT review btw
http://www.mtvhive.com/2013/04/23/charli-xcx-true-romance/
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 07:50 (ten years ago) link
haha, that was actually prompted by reading a bunch of metacritic reviews of this very album. the thing is... tumblr is a huge site, with a huge and varied userbase; it's like how people say designs "look like Geocities," as if a site with millions of uses could be somehow aesthetically consistent in a way that isn't "this is how entry-level HTML from cookbooks in 1999 is probably gonna look."
my beef I think is that a lot of time it gets invoked as a kind of shorthand to sneak in pejoratives. like, if someone is trying to say that "this charli xcx album sounds like a thing teenage girls would love," then they should just say it -- and then think about why this is such an important thing to mention. or "this charli xcx album sounds trendy" -- how? why is that bad? etc.
(also, thanks!)
― katherine, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
Ugh not feeling this at all, there's an underlying clumsiness to almost everything here and she's just not an enjoyable or engaging on-record presence. Awful voice too.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 25 April 2013 11:02 (ten years ago) link
Agreed, and I even like some of her mixtape material. I just can't with this unfinished-sounding album.
― Cousin Slappy, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:31 (ten years ago) link
Love it!!!
― calstars, Monday, 6 May 2013 01:38 (ten years ago) link
She covers 'I want it that way': http://www.popjustice.com/briefing/believe-when-we-say-we-like-it-this-way/114844/
― kinder, Wednesday, 22 May 2013 17:52 (ten years ago) link
every time i listen to this, the one with brooke candy is the only one that stands out to me
but then again it is the blatant 90s r&b homage so
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 2 June 2013 20:33 (ten years ago) link
the album really turns around after that track, i think. "what i like" and "black roses" are also very good.
i find myself rooting for her because she seems really likable but there's something gloopy about this record that i find a bit impenetrable. it's like listening to pop while having a head cold.
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 2 June 2013 20:39 (ten years ago) link
haha isn't that kinda the idea of tumblr-pop in the first place?
Supa Ultra was more consistently R&B-influenced IMO (and also led off with "Cloud Aura"). Their quality seems about the same to me.
― Tim F, Sunday, 2 June 2013 21:01 (ten years ago) link
well then that must be why i don't listen to a lot of tumblr-pop
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 2 June 2013 21:03 (ten years ago) link
i guess i mostly like pop to be bright and snappy and confident
idk i feel like she doesn't really put herself out there? i don't get a sense of vulnerability, it feels too hedged to me.
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 2 June 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
"Take My Hand" is by far my favorite of the singles. What a banger.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 June 2013 21:13 (ten years ago) link
Agreed.
J0rdan you're not wrong, I just think it's amusing how the vaunted appeal and point of distinction of this music is also the thing likely to leave many pop listeners a bit cold. But the same point's probably been made many times upthread.
― Tim F, Sunday, 2 June 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
i find myself rooting for her because she seems really likable but there's something gloopy about this record that i find a bit impenetrable.
i wish she wasn't so likable tbh, or so eager to be liked - i feel like she's a really interesting voice and artist but there's a major label sheen, an eagerness to be pop, that doesn't sit quite right. like, i don't feel we should be judging this as "pop" at all - did we ever judge pj harvey or björk as "pop"? even though they were basically mainstream figures - but it's the album's doing that it positions itself like that.
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, 3 June 2013 08:23 (ten years ago) link
maybe some people will parse it as contrived but i get a real sense of vulnerability from "set me free" and "grins"
or maybe not so much vulnerability but at the very least her performances on those songs feel like she is having an ~emotional breakthrough~
― monotony, Monday, 3 June 2013 08:48 (ten years ago) link
waitwaitwait. how are "set me free" and "you're the one" NOT vulnerable? like, you can level all manner of accusations at them but "not vulnerable enough" is just fucking bizarre. (or "hedged" for that matter -- I mean I can't think of a single emotional stop that isn't pulled out.)
FWIW I don't see her as anything close to pj harvey or bjork and I highly doubt she's aiming for that, so it seems like a non-sequitur. she's far more '80s than '90s. like, you should be looking to mall-pop and freestyle, not alt-rock.
― katherine, Monday, 3 June 2013 23:53 (ten years ago) link
The reference point that snuck into my head somehow was early Bananarama but I haven't yet relistened to Deep Sea Skiving to determine whether there's any actual basis for that. Possibly I subconsciously absorbed the Shakespeare's Sister reference upthread. It's actually interesting to think about the album's (non)relationship to 90s alt-rock - the clear absence of that vibe is a very now quality IMO. If this was released in the mid-to-late 90s it might have sounded more like the first Imogen Heap album maybe?
OTOH I haven't actually heard any Alisha's Attic albums from that period so maybe I'm wrong about this.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 00:58 (ten years ago) link
The Goldroom remix of "You (Ha Ha Ha)", save the Macarena opening, is quite good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrrmtqVunt4
― Me So Hormetic (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 01:35 (ten years ago) link
new song "interior" is kind of hilarious
― monotony, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 04:36 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awe3m4yVeT4
― ufo, Saturday, 21 January 2023 04:05 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmvi8wsHzDU
decent enough but nothing to get excited about
― ufo, Thursday, 19 October 2023 23:12 (five months ago) link
It’s alright.
― Chewshabadoo, Friday, 20 October 2023 10:47 (five months ago) link
I am already enjoying singing “In the city, in the dog dog dog” to our dog though.
― Chewshabadoo, Friday, 20 October 2023 10:48 (five months ago) link
I think when she makes "generic" pop, she can still be good but this is generic (derogatory)
― Murgatroid, Friday, 20 October 2023 13:07 (five months ago) link
Sam Smith makes everything they touch as boring as fuck.
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 20 October 2023 19:50 (five months ago) link
https://www.instagram.com/charli_xcx/reel/C2u7b_0Rbrp/
teasing a new track + announced a boiler room performance on 22 feb
― ufo, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 08:54 (one month ago) link
Wonder what 536 refers to?
― peace, man, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 17:33 (one month ago) link
536 iirc
― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 18:45 (one month ago) link
or is it 653
― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 18:46 (one month ago) link
She parties 536 days a year.
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Thursday, 1 February 2024 00:42 (one month ago) link
from the snippets I've heard it sounds like the new track will sample "Perfect (Exceeder)" or at least approximate it
― monotony, Thursday, 1 February 2024 00:53 (one month ago) link
love the new single
― Murgatroid, Thursday, 29 February 2024 17:15 (one month ago) link
I really like it too although the release was somewhat anticlimactic for me as I feel like I'd heard the song already via snippets and videos from her Boiler Room.
― monotony, Thursday, 29 February 2024 23:34 (one month ago) link
it's not bad but it's not amazing either
― ufo, Thursday, 29 February 2024 23:38 (one month ago) link
It kicks into the chorus very satisfyingly. Video is pretty cool and takes it up a notch.
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 1 March 2024 01:56 (four weeks ago) link
Yeah the way it releases the energy in the chorus is a simple trick but it works. If I was drunk and younger I’d probably lose my mind if you played it by the time the 4th red bull vodka hits.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 March 2024 04:30 (three weeks ago) link
She debuted "So I", a SOPHIE tribute, at a Billboard event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdZRDY3AT74
― monotony, Friday, 8 March 2024 05:44 (three weeks ago) link