Album Review: Charli XCX, 'CRASH'

It's nearly impossible to name an artist more pertinent to pop music's evolution in the 2010s than Charli XCX. From her formal arrival on the scene with her landmark debut album True Romance, Charli has relentlessly challenged, reinforced, and transformed our collective definition of pop music and pop stardom. Charli's years-long simultaneous embrace and rejection of traditional pop templates finds a culmination in CRASH — her bombastic fifth studio album. A winking nosedive into the abyss of 80s synthpop influences that have enveloped mainstream pop, CRASH finds Charli playing into the most common templates of female pop stardom on her own terms and on her own time. The fearlessness with which Charli handled PC music on past projects has transformed into wisdom that cushions her latest evolution.

CRASH arrives as the final album in Charli's contract with Atlantic Records — a stint that has been marked by conflicting visions of pop stardom for Charli's career. The dynamic successes of "Fancy" and "Boom Clap" poised Charli to join the ranks of mainstream pop stars like Ariana Grande and Katy Perry. Nonetheless, Charli pivoted away from an outright embrace of Top 40 and delved deeper into her exploration of the outer fringes of pop and dance music. Her new album's title (and introductory) track revels in robust drums and an 80s-esque guitar riff. Charli sings "I'm about to crash into the water, gonna take you with me / I'm high voltage, self-destructive, end it all so legendary." A thinly veiled reference to Icona Pop's "I Love It," Charli's first major hit as a featured artist and songwriter, "Crash" holds the tension between evolution and finality in every chord. When Charli sings that she'll "end it all so legendary," it's a mantra that applies to romances, her contract with Atlantic, and the theater of pop stardom and celebrity as it relates to her career and artistic evolution. The song's reliance on repetition situates it nicely in the throes of straightforward pop tracks, but the chanting feel of Charli's vocal performance fuses a distinct uneasiness into each line. "Crash" is an effective album opener in the way that it offers a thread of continuity throughout Charli's discography (she loves a car metaphor; see: Vroom Vroom and "White Mercedes") as well as reliable markers for the album's sonic palette.

The CRASH campaign commenced in September of last year with "Good Ones," a too-brief nod to 80s new wave that ultimately falls flat. Despite the echoes of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and the impassioned whispers in the pre-chorus, "Good Ones" just feels generic — a word that rarely, if ever, finds itself in association with Charli's music. In fact, all of CRASH's singles are among the less interesting and less impressive moments on the album. The Rina Sawayama-assisted "Beg For You," for example, too heavily relies on dated synths and underutilizes its garage influences. "New Shapes," however, a collaboration with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek, positions itself as a perfect antihero anthem. The Lotus IV & Deaton Chris Anthony-produced track hinges upon the sublime "what you want / I ain't got it" hook. Sure it's a vulnerable moment of fault admittance, but it's also a sly evaluation of Charli's relationship with mainstream pop over the past decade. The machine wanted Charli to completely give herself up to their will and plan, but she just didn't have that in her — and we're all the better for it. Charli's string of mixtapes, EPs, and albums of the past few years have placed her in prized positions in pop music that highlight the genre's boundlessness. CRASH is at its best when Charli fuses that spirit of exploration and expansion into this specific world of 80s pop.

"Baby," "Yuck," and "Lightning" are among the brightest moments on CRASH. "Baby" is the album's clearest showcase of its Janet Jackson influences. The latest single from the album blends sultry strings with elements of New Jack Swing and electro-funk to soundtrack one of Charli's most blatant forays into the hyperfeminine arena of sexuality in pop music. Although the majority of the song is anchored by the "I'ma make you my baby" refrain, the switch to "I'ma fuck you up, I'ma fuck you up," is the outro is the sort of deliciously dark twist that makes Charli's songs so immersive. On the other hand, the brilliance of "Yuck" is best understood when contextualized within its placement on the album. "Yuck's" play on elementary exclamations to describe the awkwardness of falling in love fits beautifully after the intimate "Every Rule," an aching ballad that illustrates the alluring obscenity of falling in love with somebody outside of your relationship. That sort of lyrical and thematic contrast is effective because of how jarring it is. The entire album is a tumultuous emotional ride and this sequence is a perfect microcosm of that sensation. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, the late music innovator SOPHIE remarked that "all pop music should be about who can make the loudest, brightest thing." Charli heeded that advice on "Lightning," a big and brash pocket of synths, vocoder, and Spanish guitar. If ever there was a moment on CRASH that felt like a tsunami descending upon the soul, it's "Lightning." "Twice," the album's closing track, comes the closest to that feeling; the apocalypse-minded song is a thematic departure from most of the album, but its championing of off-the-cuff moments of togetherness makes it a winner.

CRASH is sensational. Even when it reaches plateaus in songs like "Used to Know Me," the innate rush of the album's tracklist permanently places it in a position of heightened emotion. This record feels like scores of decisions, relationships, and feelings coming to a head at the same time. Charli XCX continues to push pop forward in ways that are immeasurable, and, this time, she's brightened up her sound to extend a hand into the mainstream all while infusing the idiosyncrasies of pop's funkiest subgenres into the DNA of every track.

Key Tracks: "Yuck" | "Twice" | "Baby" | "Every Rule"

Score: 82