British pop auteur Charlotte Aitchison has been based in the belly of the beast – the US – for some years now, trying to disrupt the global mainstream with her own mischievous futurist agenda. For every chart success, she acknowledges, there has been a tussle behind the scenes over her direction and levels of compromise.
Charli, her third official album, finally hits a noisy, sweet spot. It is, hands down, the best iteration of XCX yet, the one where Aitchison’s pop capabilities line up most persuasively with her avant garde ear. She has already released half a dozen bangers – mostly collaborations, like the excellent Gone, with Christine and the Queens, or the equally winning Warm, with Haim. But Click finds Aitchison and primo producer AG Cook ambushing unsuspecting pop fans with snarling digital noise, and pop outliers like Russian irritant Tommy Cash and the up-and-coming Kim Petras. Meanwhile, on Thoughts, Aitchison’s Autotuned trill is manipulated exquisitely.
Charli XCX songs tend to privilege partying, but here Aitchison is deeper in her feelings than on any album since her cult first outing, True Romance (2013). She acknowledges on White Mercedes that volume drowns out her introspection, but slower, more candid love songs, like Official, are revelatory.
