More about: Charli XCX

So popular has Charli XCX become that if she were to release the music equivalent of her own bath water, her fans would lap it up. As it happens, her Angels have backed an artist who seems incapable of making anything but gleaming pop platinum—even and perhaps especially when she's prioritising pop purism over avant-gardism. 

Charli was right to share so many singles from CRASH: 'New Shapes', 'Good Ones', 'Beg For You', 'Baby' and 'Every Rule' are all highly-addictive pop jams, and not one of their album bedmates are out of place alongside them.

From the title track 'Crash'—with its onomatopoeic shattering percussion—Charli positions this (whether purposefully or not) as her all-out chart return. Right from jump, 'Crash' and its disco rhythms, vocal hooks and guitar solo make it hard to believe that Charli hasn't reached the Top Ten since her 2015 Rita Ora collab 'Doing It'.  

There are plenty of Charli songs that should have dominated the charts since then (not to mention her ever-impressive albums) but Crash is both creatively magnificent and likely to find fans in even those who don't have to work too hard for their music. Crash finds Charli back at the earworm territory of 'Boom Clap' but with the production and songwriting experience of almost ten years of solid, mostly diamond experimentation.

Both 'Beg For You' (featuring Rina Sawayama) and 'New Shapes' (featuring Christine and the Queens) are so floor-filling it's hard to believe that they haven't been your favourite club go-tos since time immemorial. 'Good Ones', with its deliciously melodramatic funeral video and strutting beat, is challenged for best pop song of the past year only by other tracks on Crash. 

'Constant Repeat' leverages Cascada-sized sparkling synths just as the glitter-spray era awakens once more. 'Move Me' is Crash's ballad moment with sinuous beats and a hairbrush-belting chorus bound to be a fan favourite. An invocation of The Ick, 'Yuck' rediscovers the disco setting with a slow-time '70s bassline that mingles with hyper-modern synths. 'Used To Know Me' (like 'Beg For You', with its 'Cry For You' invocation before it) gives thanks to the clubland sound with its sampling of 'Show Me Love' by Robin S.

Everywhere you look on Crash, there are songs that will—like the music they revere—be played in clubs for years and years to come. Be very, very excited about this release—and prepare to find it impossible to pick a favourite. 

CRASH arrives 18 March via Asylum.

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: Charli XCX