Charli XCX

i wish i liked this album more than i do but despite the many catchy hooks it never quite lives up to the promise of the opening FUCK YOU, SUCKER!!!!!! apart from maybe "body of my own". someone on the jukebox said that true romance felt good but overworked and even if this is a pivot away from it the same is true. the hooks carry every song for like, a verse and a chorus and then they start to lumber where they should leap. it's all a bit lana del rey-ish, "here is pop songwriter charli xcx inhabiting some archetypes and pushing the right buttons" but i don't feel like i connect to HER or feel there's ever much at stake. also, i thought this would click when i put it to the "tipsy on the night bus" test that most great pop ends up passing at some point, and it...failed it miserably.

consider "london queen" our revenge for countless americans writing terribly about britain

i feel like charli xcx needs to get away from the MAJOR LABEL POP mindset to really fulfil her talent tbh

supposedly the next single is a new version of "doing it" featuring rita ora -__________-

Haha, it's like she's making singles just for me now.

nope

charli get out of there what are you doing

you are not cher lloyd, cher lloyd isn't even cher lloyd anymoer

UK release date pushed back again :(

the closer she gets to sounding like republica the less i'm down with her but i still mostly like the album

the whole release strategy for the album was odd to me -- score a big top 10 hit in multiple countries, then follow it u[ with something like "Break The Rules" that was so obviously doomed to not go top 10 anywhere (except Australia, apparently) and keep pushing back the album release while that stupid single choice saps her career momentum.

hilarious

this is shit music

Omar otm

yeah "break the rules" is a proper hit down here

i love the album but i think it's flopped. don't really see how rita ora could rescue things but i'm open minded

it's probably not true that anyone considers a rita ora verse in itself to be a game-changing value-add

might more just be that rita's camp is down to put up cash for a video or radio budget that the label might not be willing to part with at this stage of the campaign

i think it sounds fine

if this replaced black widow in US top 40 playlists i'd be ecstatic

"i don't feel like i connect to HER or feel there's ever much at stake" So glad you said this, lex. I gave it a lukewarm review, acknowledging it has a handful of great songs, for this reason and the blanket enthusiasm itt confused me. It's very basic - each song has one conceit (I like partying, I don't like rules, I am from London) which is reiterated efficiently without adding any new wrinkle. My daughters are obsessed with 1989 so I'm constantly reminded how many insights, twists and idiosyncratic details Taylor packs into her conceits. This seems cartoonish by comparison.

cartoonish is great!

Up to a point, sure, but I'm not going to lose my shit over it, especially when I feel there's more to her than that.

yeah charli xcx is really great at writing a catchy hook but i can't shake off the thought that she's not moving beyond being the "jessie j it's cool to like". i feel like there's a disconnect between her and her songwriting, like the amount of heavily-underlined character in her voice disguises its lack in the lyrics, which are mostly prefab signifiers - which actually might work with a more anonymous vocal (weirdly i seem to like the rita ora version of "doing it"...better???). she's tremendously talented and i don't dislike either of her albums but i feel like they're both, in different ways, dulled versions of what they could be

this whole thread and no one's mentioned the Marcus Schossow remix of Boom Clap yet (AFAICT)?

https://soundcloud.com/marcusschossow/charli-xcx-boom-clap-marcus-schossow-remix

feel like there's a disconnect between her and her songwriting, like the amount of heavily-underlined character in her voice disguises its lack in the lyrics, which are mostly prefab signifiers - which actually might work with a more anonymous vocal (weirdly i seem to like the rita ora version of "doing it"...better???).

This is why most of the album works for me: she's certainly NOT anonymous, so I hear no disconnect b/w her and the songwriting. It's like giving a charismatic actor a strong script and watching her go.

xpost sort of sounds like a trancey Knights of the Jaguar with Charli sped up on top of it? :/

I like the way it slows down halfway through then inches up through the tempos ever so slowly until it gets back up to top speed. But yeah very trancey.

I think the one-idea-per-song insight is probably mostly right, but I don't experience that as any kind of problem. Lots of the artists I love have only one idea per song. Some of them have only one idea per album, or one idea, period. If I want another idea, I switch to something else.

(Leveling this as a criticism feels to me a little like saying that Mondrian paintings don't have character development.)

She kind of reminds me of Gillette -- simple ideas put across with energy and personality.

a new blade stabilizer to maintain optimal blade spacing for maximum comfort too.

Well yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3agvlyRmM

really hope this becomes huge

:D

yeah really feeling it, rita's inclusion is kind of pointless but it doesn't detract either

that sounds like a sheena easton song

I like this but I don't think it could be a hit in the US

Yeah, as much as I like this song (it's my favorite on the album), I think Boom Clap may have been her best shot at breaking into the US market this go-round.

rita ora is barely perceptible on this song

i think she's just there so it can be a uk hit lol

yeah i think this one's aimed at britishers esp. given that the album is (finally!) being released there soon too

rita ora is barely perceptible at the best of times tbh

is Rita even perceptibly bigger than Charli in the UK at that point? they seem roughly even in terms of singles and in terms of albums Rita hasn't had one out in two and a half years.

Rita is far far far far bigger

rita's had four #1 singles in the UK, she's also a judge on The Voice right now

welp, PC music finally found her i guess :/ http://www.wonderingsound.com/charli-xcx-doing-it-a-g-cook-remix-pc-music-rita-ora-stream/

lmaooooo

terrible remix anyway

i like AG cook but i'm not sure what the point of this is

wasn't she supposed to be working with them? i had hoped that she might get them out of their horrible habit of making grown women sound like babies, but, nope

That is capital D dreadful.

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

video:

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

This album is relentless!

love Hanging Around.

Charli knows the sick beat line is horrendous

Album finally came out in the UK last week. Despite containing two top ten hits it went at number 15 with 5,622 copies sold. Sad stuff. Shows that putting albums back and leaving a three month gap in between international release dates is really pointless.