Global pop icon, Charli XCX has released her long-awaited album, CRASH ahead of North American and European tour.
Over the weekend, Charli XCX unleashed her much-anticipated 12-track album CRASH, and it is undoubtedly her most masterful blend of every pop era to date.
A follow-up to her 2020 smash record, How I’m Feeling Now, Charli’s latest album features collaborations with French singer-songwriter Christine and the Queens, Japanese-British musician Rina Sawayama, and American pop artist Caroline Polachek.
Named after the album’s opening single, CRASH triumphantly embodies elements of both futurism and nostalgia, thanks to its bold fusion of contemporary dance-pop, 80s synth-pop and pop-funk.
Drawing you in from the very start with an energetic hook, Charli sings, “I’m high voltage, self-destructive, end it all so legendary,” in her signature, futuristic pop tone.
Discussing the opening track, Charli says, “it’s really important to the universe of the album. It kind of sets the tone and covers quite a few themes that reoccur across the record, including sex, power and self-destruction.”
Naming Janet Jackson as one of her influences, she says, “I really love this song so much, particularly the guitar solo…I hope you enjoy it.”
Cinematic music videos accompany five of the album’s tracks, including New Shapes (Feat. Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek), which skilfully showcases a dynamic collaboration between three pop icons, whose combined vocals are nothing short of electrifying.
Paying homage to her Boom Clap roots, the album’s second-last tune, Used To Know Me is an “anthemic, shouty, party anthem” according to the English pop star. “This is kind of me returning to my more classic style of songwriting,”she says.
The twelfth and final track, Twice takes quite the thematic shift but is a fitting send-off for the album nonetheless.
“This is a very important song to me because I’ve never written a song about the end of the world…so it’s a different subject matter for me” says Charli. “I was kind of just thinking about how it would feel if/when the world ends…who I would think about, who I would miss, what memories I would keep at the front of my mind, and whether I would feel like I lived my life exactly the way I wanted to live it.”
CRASH is Charli’s fifth studio album, and reportedly her last release under the Atlantic label.
To debut the new album, the pop songstress will soon be embarking on a mammoth tour of North America and Europe, starting in California this weekend.
For a full list of tour dates, click here.
Stream the album CRASH below.
