The general narrative of mainstream pop-mega-stars and pop-mega-stardom has changed massively since the perfect, pre-packaged, plastic pop Princes and Princesses of the ’90s and early ’00s. With the rise of the internet, the blogosphere and then social media we were given a (faux) proximity to our pop stars that we never had before. This changed our relationship with them and them with us. Instead of pop stars being portrayed as untouchable, unknowable mega-beings. They were portrayed to us as ‘just like us’ normal everyday beings that happened to be some of the best known people in the world. Likeableness and nicessness became a commodity that they traded in, regardless of its authenticity. If they are (were?) ‘just like us’ then this mirror reflection of ourselves should be a nice, likeable reflection.
Charlie XCX has just chucked a grenade into the middle of all of this shit.
We start every review of an Album of the Month with the question ‘what did you expect and what did you get?’. Never has the cover art of an AOTM helped us answer the first part of the question so much. The album cover very clearly tells you what to expect; expect luminous green, expect brash, expect brat-ishness, expect green-with-envy, expect bitchiness and expect bold, brave honesty’. You do get all of this, but I’d argue, not as unlike-ably bratish as I was expecting.
It’s impossible to ignore the critical reaction to this album. It is currently sitting as Metacritic’s no.1 ranked album of the year with a 95/100 score from 24 reviews – take a look. The first 7 reviews are 100%. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. This is Charlie’s 6th album, the culmination of 15 years of making music and 10 years and 5 previous albums of recording music. She’s managed to create a cult, niche status and persona despite massive commercial success. Charlie’s rise to stardom started with making music in her bedroom, sharing on social media, playing at raves and parties … the club is strong in her past and her present. This is pop record for the clubs. You can feel, smell and taste the sweat on your skin if you let yourself. There’s always been something of an edge to her that seems to cut deeper than the record company’s desired facade.
So what is this album? It’s 16 tracks. It’s 41 minutes. That means the average track length is comfortably under 3 mins. The longest track is only 3 mins 23. The shortest 1 min 49. But none of them are interludes. It must be said, if you don’t like a specific track, it’s gone before you know. I genuinely wouldn’t lose a single track. And I would not change the sequence of tracks at all. There are some that resonate more than others of course, but even the most brash, the most brat-ish tracks do something for me that I really like. Yeah get scuzzy, sleazy, bleary eyed nights out but you also get anxiety, envy, self-conciousness, self-awareness and moments of pure self confidence and agency all wrapped in a perfect pop sheen.
Let’s talk about envy, many of the tracks on this album are about Charli’s status as a pop star and how this compares to her contemporary mega-stars. But there are two that stand out ‘Girl, So Confusing’ (clearly about Lorde) and ‘Sympathy is a Knife’ (clearly about old Swifty). There are a lot of emotions to talk about here. None of them are emotions that most people are proud of and far fewer willing to write songs about. In a recent podcast (listen here) she talks about this in majestic honesty and with great impact …
‘This is my favourite part of the high-art-ness of music and the low-art-ness of popstar, pop-culture, this brings the three dimensional world to songs’ i.e. it’s the real, the honest, the real-life and real-emotions of human existence that make things relatable and real. She also goes on to say ‘I don’t think you’re a bad feminist just cause you don’t see eye to eye with every woman.’
I think this album is massively strong lyrically speaking, it’s the secret sauce. She is not a poet. She is not trying to be. She’s talked about writing lyrics differently for this album, which is something I’d noticed before hearing that interview. She writes lyrics like she’s texting or updating the group chat. I chose these examples carefully as the lyrics feel like intimate messages to people close to her conveyed on digital media … but not public facing digital media. It’s personal, real and raw. Its everyday language. She references people by their first names, her fiance, her producer and friends and collaborators that she’s lost. You feel like she’s sharing, letting you in … but again, with no or minimal facade. She is self conscious and self-deprecating in a very similar way to Amy Winehouse, I find this fascinating, and if I’m honest, a little spooky. Given that I’ve never heard a Charli XCX album before this, I feel like she’s let me know her. An almost identical feeling to hearing ‘Frank’ for this first time.
Let’s end on production. This album could have been recorded WAY WAY scuzzier than it was. The songs are strong enough to carry some major imperfections. There are imperfections, perfectly placed and curated to generate maximum impact. But this a pristine, piece of pop music with the production you would expect from something that will take Charli to the next level of stardom (and is certainly doing that). So, there is plenty of auto-tune, plenty of voice modulation and filters. I’m ok with this. It’s pop music. It’s ‘hyper-pop’, it fits. When discussing Auto Tune on the Tape Notes podcast (listen here) she basically says that she swaps vocal perfection for immediacy, for ‘real’ and that she’s lazy, smokes and drinks so … you know, auto-tune. Fair play Charlie.
Love it or hate it, you’ve got admire it.
I love it. It’s taken some research, some understanding, some exploration of a world I knew very little about to come to that opinion. But this is my kind of pop music. It bangs.
thisisnothappening.net 