Charli

Charli XCX

Charli XCX has quickly become one of my favourite pop artists and it is mostly due to her willingness to push boundaries and challenge her audience. Ever since aligning herself with A.G. Cook, who served as her producer and creative director on her last few releases, Charli's music has become more colourful, dynamic, and compelling. It took a little while to iron out the kinks but Charli is where she finally achieved creating her pop opus. It all begins with the statement Next Level Charli. Without taking a breathe, Charli bounces between never-ending raves, speeding on the highway, blasting the music, always pushing forward, and never looking back. It's absolutely exhilarating! Thoughts is similarly exhilarating with the overwhelming synth pads and Charli's aggressively auto-tuned vocals. Despite being so processed, the vocals still have quite a bit of character and emotional impact thanks to Charli's excellent performance.

As I mentioned before, Charli at times will challenge the listener by incorporating more abrasive EDM or industrial sounds into her songs. One example is the song Click where the percussion buzzes and gurgles. The very end of the song is totally blown out as all this distortion and compression is applied creating this unsettling and disorienting passage. It's the last thing you think you would hear in a pop song. On the other end of the spectrum we have songs like I Don't Wanna Know and Official. These two songs play back to back which is kinda interesting since thematically, they are quite dichotomous. I Don't Wanna Know is a slow, spacious, and heartbroken tune where Charli feels their romantic partner becoming more distant; potentially leaving them for someone else. The vocal melody in the chorus for some reason really grabs my attention, especially when Charli quickly shifts in and out of her falsetto. Official on the other hand is a warm and whimsical song about two people finally having that conversation where they define and solidify their relationship. The chorus features this beautiful piano trill that cycles in the background. It has a very mesmerizing effect.

Pop music I find often gets a bad wrap of being asinine, un-adventurous, and overall just being so watered down in order to appeal to the widest of audiences. This I can assure you is not that. Charli is colourful, futuristic, fun, and creative. It is also incredibly varied in terms of sound and style which prevents it from ever becoming stale. When this album first came out, I had this thing on repeat and I just never got sick of it. Today, I still play it on occasion and when I do, it still feels incredibly fresh and exciting.