wed 13/11/2024

Album: Charli XCX - Crash | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Charli XCX - Crash

Album: Charli XCX - Crash

Fifth album from a reliably bright and musically astute pop star and songwriter

Charli XCX embraces her David Lynch side

Charli XCX is the pop stars’ pop star.

Working with everyone from K-pop megastars BTS to US rapper Lil Yachty to indie-rockers Vampire Weekend, her career arc has a meta aspect, initially personified by her joyously electro-punky second album Sucker, but then given addition human warmth by her COVID lockdown openness. Terms such as “hyper-pop” and “avant-pop” are sometimes used to differentiate her output, but why reinvent the wheel. Her fifth album is pop, pure and simple, well-crafted sonically snappy 2022 pop.

The subject matter throughout is love and sex, infidelity and longing, but the only truly original narrative is the entertaining and borderline brilliant “Yuck”, a catchy, squidgy slow-funkin’ number wherein Charli cringes at a soppy suitor (“Looking at me all sucky/Quit acting like a puppy”). This isn’t to suggest this is the only good track, far from it. Anyone who’s heard the bangin’ thump-pop single “Good Ones” will know there’s at least one other corker. In fact, there’s a bunch of them.

The chugging garage-beaty “Beg For You”, with Rina Sawayama, showcases XCX’s way with a chorus and also her flighty, airy, characterful voice, while the retro-house floorfiller “Used to Know” is a cheerfully blatant lift from Robin S’s deathless 1993 hit, “Show Me Love” (yet another!). And there’s a strand of Eighties-flavoured electro-funk on the album, most notably "New Shapes", featuring Christine and the Queens, which owes a slight debt to Van Halen’s “Jump”, but also the sex-fuelled “Baby” and the aforementioned “Yuck”.

Other songs worth a visit include Madonna-ish Vocoder stomper “Lightning” – featuring unlikely flamenco guitar - and the wistfully sweet and floaty “Constant Repeat” (“You could have had a bad girl by your side”!). All in all, there’s plenty of juice here, plenty to draw the listener back. Charlie XCX is a smart, sassy, likeable post-Lady Gaga star, and Crash is a solid addition to her canon.

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters