Charli XCX, Charli - album review
There is so much to love about Charli XCX.
From her creative swagger, fusing genres and doing as she sees - not as others ask. Overcoming setbacks and not being afraid to change tack when one direction hasn't quite been working out for her. Her continued collaborations with female artists that promote girl power at the forefront of pop invention round every turn.
Collaborations are the theme for this record too, executive produced with A G Cook and featuring a plethora of her friends including Lizzo, Christine and the Queens, Haim, Troye Sivan, Brooke Candy, CupcakKe, Big Freedia, Sky Ferreira, Clairo and Yaeji.
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At the centre is Charli, a seemingly inexhaustible visionary whose ripping up of the pop template and doing it her way matches the excellent release by Self Esteem back in March.
Her voice dances over the top of a thumping orchestra of beats and electronic wizardry. Each track seems so perfectly tweaked you can picture her and Cook sat in a dark studio at 5am refusing to call it quits until everything was perfect.
1999 (ft. Troye Sivan) is a perfect example of this. A nostalgic reminder of her younger days - her name itself was her display name on MSN Messenger for anyone who remembers that instant messaging service - it's a real stomper of pop perfection as Charli and Troye's vocals bounce nicely off one another.
We go back even further to 80s vibes in I Don't Wanna Know with her Kate Bush-esque fazed vocal delivery given an ethereal quality by the mastering.
Blame It On Your Love (ft. Lizzo) features militaristic percussion on one of the brutally honest tracks here where Charli perhaps opens up on her own shortcomings when forming relationships. The big-sounding upbeat chorus is a real highlight with its piping sounds.
Some of the work behind the voice is so out-there, a fresh change to some of her contemporaries who select a beat and sing over the top of it as it is. Warm (ft. Haim) and Shake it (ft. Big Freedia, CupcakKe, Brooke Candy and Pablio Vittar) are two that experiment to the extreme with flattening and sharpening vocals, particularly the latter.
To try and put into a review of this length everything Charli XCX throws into a record of this size is impossible. Just pick it up, play it, and find your own favourite effects to jive along to.
Rating: 8/10
Charli XCX brings her Charli LIVE your to Birmingham's O2 Institute on October 28
