Favourite Albums of 2024 - The Top 10

 

It’s the end of the year and that means it’s the appropriate time to post an end of the year list. Not November. Not even the middle of December. But at the end of the year.

So here is the Breaking More Waves Favourite Albums of 2024 list.

There’s no big commentary or no real explanation of the records here. This is because if you are the sort of person that pays any interest in end of year lists, you probably can’t stand any more essays on why such and such a record is so good.

There are just 3 short points to be made about this list:

1. I only post my Top 10 records here, because as I’ve said in previous years, who really wants to listen to an album that someone says is their 89^th favourite release of 2024?

2. However, if you do want more than 10, you can find the Breaking More Waves Top 30 on a Spotify playlist here. 1 track from each record.

3. Having first appeared on the blog in 2009 after releasing the song Do It Well, Charli XCX is no stranger to the Breaking More Waves end of year list. She previously featured in 6^th (True Romance 2013), 10^th (Sucker 2014), 14^th (Charli 2019), 6^th again (How I’m Feeling Now 2020) and 28^th places (Crash 2022). But this time she goes higher. Brat is number 1. The album topped a lot of end of year polls. This one is no different. It’s the most forward thinking, modern, exciting, honest, danceable pop record I’ve heard all year and is packed full of good songs.

Brat is also unusual in that it’s an album that has made album artwork important / talked about again. Streaming has to a large extent destroyed interest in album artwork which relies generally on a bigger canvas than a small square on someone's phone. With Brat, Charli has made it important again. It’s influence has gone way beyond pop music.

Here’s the top 10. The playlist of the top 30 can be found on this link here.

Top 10 Albums of 2024

 1st Charli XCX – Brat

2nd The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy

3rd The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

4th Fabiana Palladino  - Fabiana Palladino

5th English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

6th Kneecap – Fine Art

7th Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft

8th Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching

9th Sprints – Letter To Self

10th Lady Blackbird - Slang Spirituals

Charli XCX - 360 (From Brat)

charlixcx · 360

Charli XCX - forever

What I really like about Charli XCX is that despite flirting with a variety of styles over the length of her recording history they’ve always sat under the umbrella of pop, but it has always been pop with a sharper edge. She’s got the hooks but they’re darker, deadlier and more deviant than the output of much of her peer group.

And so it is with new track forever. Charli has always been prolific when it comes to writing and recording, and the recent lockdown finds her channelling her creative energies into making a whole new album. “I’m going to basically be making it live from scratch – there are a couple of ideas in the works, but basically I’m starting from nothing,” she explained. 

forever contains everything that makes Charli XCX a great pop artist. There’s the aforementioned hook (which admittedly has a hint of Track 10 / Blame It On Your Love to it) but then there’s the warped weird production of the verses. Apparently A.G Cook of PC Music has a helping hand in it which could explain some of the more left of centre hyper futuristic ruffled glitter oddness. Listen to that dirty electronic sound at the beginning and the whooshing noise that might make you think of a heart murmur heard through a very powerful stethoscope. It's like Aphex Twin making a pop record. Almost. Then lyrically it’s just expresses some simple sentiments: “I will always love you, I love you forever, even when we’re not together.” It’s good stuff. 

Charli is intending to bash out the album in the next few weeks and release it in May. Now there’s all sorts of arguments about quality control when projects are rolled out quickly like this, but personally I’m a big fan of this kind of idea. Over analysing something and putting it through a massive music industry machine can sometimes cement in all the cracks; often it’s the cracks that provide the life of a record. More of this please and less artists doing shitty quality Instagram live streams on their terrible wi-fi connection via their phone – those sort of performances don’t have cracks, but gaping ugly chasms.

Charli XCX - forever

New Music: Charli XCX - Blame It On Your Love (featuring Lizzo)

Over the last day or so Charli XCX and Lizzo have been teasing a track that they’ve recorded together. 'BOUT 2 SAVE POP MUSIC,' the sign in the picture proclaimed (see above).

At first Blame It On Your Love could seem like a disappointment; it’s a remix / rework of Track 10 - my favourite tune from Charli’s Pop 2 record. Why remix a great tune? It seems silly – it's like taking a Michelin starred restaurant meal and throwing some Nando's perri perri lemon & herb sauce over it - it might still taste OK, but the chances of improving things are very limited. But then music, like food, is all about taste.

And yes, this version isn't as spectacular as the original. However, the Stargate reggaeton / tropical house pop production on the track probably makes it a little more accessible to the masses. If there’s a non-sweary edit it could even get some radio play. After all the super-synthetic, apocalyptic, bonkers, build-to-ecstasy version on Pop 2 with it’s weird Aphex Twin style intro, harp, Charli’s processed vocals and PC Music production was pretty out there. 

However, Blame It On Your Love reminds us (as if we needed reminding) that Charli XCX knows how to write a hook, so be prepared to get fully pulled in by this one. As a bonus we also get Lizzo, although her appearance on the track is fleetingly short and seems a little bit phoned in: “Blame it on the juice, looking at my booty like you don’t know what to do,” she raps.

If I hadn’t heard Track 10 before this I’d have been claiming that it was time to grab a cocktail and jump into your neon coloured swimwear as this could be one of the party pop songs of the summer, instead I’ll say it could still be, but to turn up the heat even higher put on Track 10 and get well and truly burnt.

Other fun facts about Lizzo and Charli XCX: In the last couple of years they’ve both recorded songs called Boys. Both are very good although bizarrely Lizzo didn’t put hers on her album, although it can be found on the Deluxe edition, so play that instead.

Charli XCX - Blame It On Your Love (featuring Lizzo)

Breaking More Waves Is 9 Years Old Today - Here's A Blog Post To Celebrate

9 years old today. 9 bloody years I’ve been doing this thing. This blog. This record of some of the stuff I’ve been listening to. 

It’s fascinating to look back over that time and see some of the artists that I’ve introduced. Some of them have gone on to be a huge creative and commercial success. Others, absolutely nothing. 

Here are a handful of examples. Look at the picture below. Recognise her? That’s Charli XCX back in 2009 when I first wrote about her. At the time she was flaunting a bunch of songs like Neon Fashion & Glowstix and Francheskaar and I concluded that although her music appealed to me I found it hard to see any long term appeal. 8 years on and she seems to be doing OK. Her first 2 albums proper ended up being some of my favourites of 2013 and 2015 respectively.

Here’s another one. Recognise them? No, me neither. But apparently, they were a band called Look Stranger! I featured them on the blog once and that was all. I can’t remember anything about what they sounded like now, even having re-read my original blog post. I never heard of them again.

And here’s one more. This was Skint & Demoralised. I named him as one to watch many years ago. His music never set the world alight (albeit listening back to it now I still really enjoy it) but years on Matt Abbott the singer cropped up on this TV advert (click here), showing that he was one to watch, just not in the way I originally thought.

What I’m trying to say with all of this is that in 9 years of music blogging what I’ve learnt is that anyone who tells you that they are a tastemaker and can predict the success of any artist is talking out of their arse*. Some acts make it, some don’t. Nobody has the perfect crystal ball. Every time someone tells you about how they were one of the first to discover a particular successful artist, ask them how many others they discovered that never went on to light up the world. By the law of averages, the more artists a site writes about, the more chance there is that some of them will go on to be massively commercially or artistically successful. 

All I can do, and all any blog worth their salt can do is bring you some new music and new artists I like. The rest is unknown.

Breaking More Waves is 9 years old today. Right now I’m celebrating that fact somewhere in a field in Somerset at Glastonbury Festival, probably with a cider / wine / gin and tonic in hand. Maybe all 3. 

I always said at some point the blog will end and when it does I’ll make a definite point about it. There will be no gradually fading away. But a big full stop. But not yet. I’ve got a little bit more fuel in the tank yet. Maybe not a lot, but it's not time for ending quite yet. 

Thanks for reading guys, without you it would be fairly pointless.

*Footnote. Some other things I've learnt whilst writing this blog are:

1. When times are bad (death / illness etc) music can be a salvation. In fact this blog has been a real help for me during those bad times - the last year in particular.

2. I also run a twitter account associated with the blog. Twitter is a very odd place - a weird bubble where people reinforce their own views with others like them and castigate those who do things differently to their world view - with little or no nuanced discussion. (How can you in 140 characters?). 

3. There's only so much you can say about music before you start repeating yourself. 

4. Musicians are weird and like to promote their art by sitting in the bath.

The Sunday Surf #1

Back in 2011/12 I used to post a feature on Saturday called The Saturday Surf. “Some music bloggers are so time rich that they are able to sit at their laptops and see music drop into their inbox or other feed sources and post about it instantaneously. Breaking More Waves is not one of those. It’s why we post the Saturday Surf. It’s a chance for us and maybe you to catch up on a few musical beauties that would have otherwise slipped away,” I explained at the time.

The lack of time element has never changed – in fact one of the reasons I stopped doing The Saturday Surf was not having enough time to do it. But now, it’s back, except on a Sunday. Not every Sunday, but as and when I feel like it. 3 -5 songs, with just some very short text rather than my usual ramble and the important bit - the music. 

Also, I’ve recently started a ‘Breaking More Waves 2016 Latest’ playlist on Spotify, which captures the vast majority of tracks I’ve posted on the blog from the previous month – if you want to subscribe to that you can find it by clicking here, and the next update is due early next week.

Here’s this weeks’ Sunday Surf

Parcels – Gamesofluck

I absolutely adore this track, it’s probably my favourite thing I’ve heard this week and in all honesty it should have had its own individual post. Obviously not fans of spaces in between the words, Australia’s Parcels follow up to Myenemy mixes up all night disco grooves, with slabs of synths usually found on cold edged 80’s European synth pop records and vocals that have a cool laid-back quality similar to those of Jungle. With a debut EP out on Kitsune next year consider me won over already.



Lanikai – I’m Glad

Lanikai is Imaginary Cities lead singer Marti Sarbit’s new project and I’m Glad is the first song to be taken from the it. With a style that sounds like Flaming Lips when they’re at their least weird and most commercial, I’m Glad twinkles with an engaging and dreamy prettiness, full of brass, cascading keys and haunting vocals.



Charli XCX – After The Afterparty

Charli XCX knows how to write a pop hook doesn’t she? “Make sure u play it play it on repeat at ur halloween ragers, birthdays, funerals this weekend. it's a real spooky banger ;)”. She says. Not sure about playing it at a funeral, but each to their own. Probably the first song that has an association with London based producer Sophie that I like. This one by rights should be a big chart hit.



The Avalanches – Because I’m Me

My favourite video of the week, which despite its modern setting and dancing manages to hark back to the days of classic old musicals. Even although the Wildflower LP wasn't quite what I hoped (after 16 years I wanted them to evolve rather than just remaking their previous record) I can't deny that Because I'm Me, as a single, is a huge dollop of fun.

Albums of 2015 #10 Charli XCX - Sucker

We start our top 10 run down with a record that in some parts of the world was released in 2014, but with an odd non-internet savvy strategy, Charli XCX’s label decided that here in the UK we had to wait until 2015 to hear the follow up to True Romance.

Charli’s previous album, our 6th favourite of 2013, had under-performed commercially, not getting anywhere near the UK top 40. The new LP did better, hitting number 15 thanks to Miss Aitchison finally getting some hit singles in the form of Boom Clap (no.6), Break The Rules (no.35) and Doing It (no.8), all of which featured on the record. 

But whilst True Romance was a blog friendly album of savvy electronic pop songs, Sucker took a different direction. It maintained the trashiness of its predecessor, but was in places bigger, bolder, brasher and more aggressive. There were some guitars, some swearing, lots of hooks and plenty of attitude, including songs about masturbation (Body Of My Own), getting wrecked (Break The Rules) and going out late and crashing a party (Famous). With Sucker Charli XCX put her name alongside a lineage of 90’s bands like Shampoo and Kenickie; female vocal pop bands with a bubblegum punk sensibility about them, but it also hinted in places at Britney Spears or the Spice Girls (who we first mentioned in connection with Charli when we first posted about her way back in 2009 here) with a slightly scissor sharpened edge. 

Sucker probably isn’t an album that will find its way on to anyone’s album of the decade list in 2019, it understands well enough that pop songs can sometimes be brilliant but ultimately throwaway, but certainly it’s formed a big part of our soundtrack to 2015. Which is why it finds itself at #10 on our end of year list.

Charli XCX - London Queen

Charli XCX - Break The Rules (Video)

Giorgio Moroder - Diamonds (featuring Charli XCX)

This one certainly isn’t a rough cut. Take two distinctive voices, namely Breaking More Waves favourite finger-in-the-air f*ck you popster Charli XCX and what sounds like a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell speech synthesizer, add in some pumping electronic production courtesy of the master Giorgio Moroder (but you can call him just Giorgio) and you’ve got yourself a gem of a song that will probably make you want to strip down to your underwear and dance around the bedroom like you’ve had a little too many vodka chasers. It’s the perfect combination of old and young, retro and future, electronica and pop, and of course, Charli and Giorgio. 

Giorgio Moroder - Diamonds (featuring Charli XCX)

Charli XCX - Famous (Video)

Tonight Charli XCX plays Brighton, UK. We’ll be there. Based on the previous six gigs we’ve seen her play we’ll probably need a lie down and time to recover afterwards. So for that reason we’re taking just a tiny holiday away from the blog, but normal posting will resume towards the end of the week.

In the meantime here’s the new Eric Wareheim directed video for Famous, which will be Charli’s next single. The video deals with the juxtaposition between reality and social media dependence – complete with selfie sticks, a gimmick that surely in 10 years we’ll all look back at and go ‘do you remember those?’

Famous is set for release on June 1st via Asylum Records. It’s taken from Charli’s album Sucker which currently stands as our most listened to album of 2015. Does this make it our favourite so far? Perhaps.  Or perhaps not. We live in age where 'favourite' has become quantified – from clicking the the little star on tweets, to Facebook likes, to You Tube or Hype Machine hearts. Yet there’s also an argument that just because you don’t play a record so many times it can still be a favourite - quantity isn't everything. A lot depends on your listening style and strategy. 

Does that last sentence sound a bit theoretical and university thesis like? Yeah, of course it does, but hey sometimes here at Breaking More Waves we like to delve a little bit deeper. It’s not all just ‘here’s a good pop song blah blah blah.’ Although Famous is a really good pop song. Blah blah blah.

So to keep it simple here’s the theory:

If you’re what Huron (2002) described as either an Emotional Listener or an Ecstatic Listener you’re much more likely to define your favourite as something that connects in an emotional way – even if you only listen a few times.

Does the Charli XCX album connect with us on some deep emotional level? Does it give us goosebumps? No. But it does make us want to bounce round the room and do crazy air punches. For the theorists that’s a fair amount of us being a Kinesthetic listener. Sucker isn’t about contemplation, it’s about motivation, and this record gets us fired up.

So next time someone laughs at you for saying that one of your favourite records of the year is some trashy pop album, rather than the new Sufjan Stevens record; ignore them. They’ve just got a different listening style to you, it's that as much as anything else that defines their taste. It doesn’t make you or them any more or less of a music fan.

We linked to Huron’s explanation of listening styles and strategies a few posts ago, but here it is again in case you missed it (click here).

We'll be back soon.

Charli XCX - Famous (Video)

Charli XCX - Doing It ft Rita Ora

Are you like Breaking More Waves and thought that when over 400 people complained about Rita Ora’s appearance on BBC’S The One Show it was probably because she’d sung a song rather than because she’d worn a very slightly cleavage revealing tuxedo jacket? It would seem a fair complaint to us if it had been the former.

And are you like us and think that Charli XCX is arguably one of the best pop stars out there at the moment? Her trashy, bubblegum, hair swaying, punk-punch cheerleader inspired aesthetic and tunes could have Ora’s out cold in the first round of a musical boxing match.

If so, the news that Charlotte has teamed up with Rita for a new song called Doing It creates all sorts of questions, but mainly. WHY OH WHY?

The answer (to us at least) is that whilst in the U.S Charli is doing very well thank you, in the UK, she’s lagging a bit. Break The Rules sounded to our ears like a massive pop banger and hit, but maybe because Charli was spending most of her time doing promo in the U.S it didn’t really happen here, stiffing at number 35 in the UK combined sales / streaming charts and dropping off pretty quickly after that. So whilst Charli’s album is out in the U.S, in the UK it’s been put back a bit to have another shot at a hit. So rolling in Rita Ora, who inexplicably seems very popular and is just about to increase her visibility further by being one of the Judges on the new season of BBC1’s The Voice, is the solution. It’s all about exposure (music rather than the cleavage that is).

So what’s the song like? 

Doing It is produced by Ariel Rechtshaid who has produced the likes of Vampire Weekend, Sky Ferreira and Haim and you can hear his touch here – there’s a bit of a Haim does electronic pop vibe to it. It’s less ballsy and fiery than Break The Rules, in fact its positively frothy, but what it shows is that whatever style Charli adopts she has a knack for melody and hooks, and do you know what? By third listen you might have even forgotten that Rita Ora’s present. 

Come on UK, make this one a hit. Let Charli’s journey, which we’ve been chronicling since we wrongly stated, “we still find it difficult to see anything particularly long term with her,” way back in 2009 (here) take another step forwards and upwards. Then she can kick Rita Ora in to touch.

Charli XCX - Doing It ft Rita Ora

12 From '14 - Some Of The Best Songs On Breaking More Waves This Year

We’re getting ready to say goodbye to another year and here at Breaking More Waves it’s been a very successful one. 

How do we define this success? In three simple ways:

1. We’re still doing what we do. That might not sound a particularly impressive statement, but to continue to keep Breaking More Waves running, this year posting nearly 50 more times than any previous year and hitting over 500 posts in total, against the pressures of a demanding full time job and family is success in itself. 

2. To still get huge pleasure and enjoyment out of doing what we do.

3. Having cheekily asked on Twitter if anyone would be prepared to pay to read our blog posts and getting a few positive answers, in January of this year, alongside another music blogger Adam from Alphabet Bands we put this to the test and participated in a non-stop 24 hour Blogathon to raise money for Cancer Research asking readers (as well as friends and family) to sponsor us. We were stunned by the reaction from readers and their generosity, eventually raising just over £1,500 between the 2 blogs in the 24 hour period. Receiving £50 donations from complete strangers who were reading our posts was an incredibly humbling experience and without doubt the best and most valueable thing we have ever done in Breaking More Waves 6 and a half year history. 

Goodbye 2014.

We’re closing our year by featuring 12 of our favourite songs we've featured this year, each one in video form. For once, we 're providing no commentary on the individual tracks, we think we've said all we want to say for one year.

This isn’t a definitive list as we’ve chosen 1 song from each month, meaning that on really good months a number of great songs have had to be sacrificed and some songs that we adore haven’t made the cut as they never had a video. We've also chosen 12 different artists.

See you in 2015.

January

Låpsley - Station



February

Indiana - Solo Dancing



March

Jungle - Busy Earnin'



April

Zella Day - Sweet Ophelia



May

La Roux - Let Me Down Gently



June

Broods - Mother & Father



July

Laura Doggett - Phoenix



August

Charli XCX - Break The Rules



September

Seinabo Sey - Pistols At Dawn



October

Clarence Clarity - Those Who Can't Cheat



November

IYES - Glow



December

Young Fathers - Get Up

Charli XCX - Breaking Up (Video)

If you ever refer to The Rules Of Pop Chapter 17 – Survival In Pop Music you’ll find that as a broad generalisation there are two main methods. 

The first is the Oasis method. This involves finding a formula and sticking to it. It’s sometimes called Giving The Fans What They Want. It’s usual outcome is one of diminishing returns as eventually most of the fans and the artist themselves realise that the fans don’t really want that at all, because they’ve already got it and you’re just serving up another weaker version.

The second is the Blur method. This involves finding a formula, using it, throwing it in the bin and then using a new formula. It’s sometimes referred to as Keeping The Fans On Their Toes. It’s usual outcome is far more unpredictable, but get it right and if founded by good songs a long term career can be achieved.

Charli XCX very much appears to be going for the Blur method. Album two Sucker (coming to some parts of the world this month and other parts next) is going to be very different from Breaking More Waves sixth favourite record of 2013 True Romance. It will upset some old fans, but win some new ones as well. New song Breaking Up is a good example with Charli showing how she has moved from a darker synthetic sound to embrace elements of bubblegum punk. The other day we posted Do You Wanna Be In My Bland by DIY band Pris and Breaking Up, whilst given a glossier production, shares some similarities.In particular it references mid 90’s duo Shampoo.

The video for Breaking Up kicks off with an excerpt from Charli’s own cover of Allergic To Love by Snuffed By The Yazuka before launching into a riff-tastic and attitude laden pop song, Charli giving it some swagger in the bowling alley. “Everything was wrong with you, so breaking up was easy to do,” she sings, pulling no punches; once again she knows how to do a hook.

2015 looks like being another good year for Charli. Based on her recent sold out show at London’s Heaven we reckon that if she was given some decent evening slots at UK festivals this year, her energetic and fiery performance would go down a storm. 

Charli XCX - Breaking Up

Charli XCX - Break The Rules (Broods Remix)

The release of Broods really excellent debut album has been a bit of an oddity. Already available in certain parts of the world, our own country of the UK has been starved from listening to it unless you 1. Illegally download it. 2. Import it. We suspect the majority will opt for 1, which is a shame. 

We’re also a bit confused about the release of Charli XCX’s next album Sucker, which is also being released in different territories at different times, which will surely leading to even more illegal downloading. Also Boom Clap did very well and was a proper hit (number 6 in the UK, number 8 in the US, and 9 in Australia), but Break The Rules seems to have stiffed a bit, just sneaking into the lower reaches of the UK top 40. We thought it deserved to do better, being the sort of track that you can bounce up and down vigorously to. Then there’s London Queen a bubblegum punk track that’s been pushed out onto You Tube with a Tracey Beaker styled lyric video (which you can see here). We’re not sure where that really fits in the big scheme of things and we’re hoping that before Charli pushes out Sucker she’s got another big radio banger to pull out of the bag. 

Which brings us to this remix, in which Charli XCX gets a good seeing to by Broods. We’re not sure where these remixes really fit in the big scheme of things either, but that’s for record labels and industry types to worry about. What we do know is that we like this one. It’s what you’d expect from these two artists when they’re pushed together. It squeezes a little more darkness out of the song than the original. It's a bit industrial and oily. Let it dribble and drum menacingly all over your ears. 

Charli XCX plays Heaven in London tonight. 

Charli XCX - Break The Rules (Broods Remix)

Charli XCX - Break The Rules (Video)

Imagine going to a school where Charli XCX was a pupil. That would have been quite A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Break times would have probably been spent listening to the Spice Girls, Shampoo, punk and rave whilst flirting with boys who would know that they just weren’t good enough. 

Now you don’t have to imagine it at all because Charli has put the whole lot in a video (minus the Spice Girls, Shampoo, punk and rave records but at least there's some school). It’s super trashy, super glamourous and super attitude laden and features a guest appearance from Rose McGowan as Charli goes to prom and throws herself around in and on top of a school bus. 

Charli XCX - Break The Rules (Video)

Charli XCX - Break The Rules

The iGeneration =

Short attention span / on-the-go click / swipe behaviour

Endless choice

Music as a one night stand

Not giving a f*ck

This is Charli XCX’s ‘not giving a f*ck’ song for the short attention span kids with endless choice who treat music as a one night stand. It’s the kind of song that Britney Spears should have released instead of releasing the truly terrible Britney Jean or the kind of song that David Guetta probably wishes he had released instead of doing all that silly standing in one spot and jumping up and down with his hands in the air stuff. It is basically a banger with stupid (in a good way) old fashioned lyrics about not wanting to go to school, getting wrecked and dancing. 

It is of course inane and mindless, but then sometimes that is all pop needs to be. Break The Rules is from the forthcoming album Sucker – now there’s a title.

Charli XCX - Break The Rules

Charli XCX - Boom Clap (Elk Road Remix)

It’s about bloody time isn’t it?

This week Charli XCX is going to have her first proper solo UK chart hit. We say ‘proper’ because the collaborations and the Icona Pop number 1 weren’t Charli in her own right.

We’ve got to say we’re very pleased about this. For 4 reasons.

1. Because the chart needs stars and performers like Charli XCX. Stars that have fire in their bellies.

2. Because it half fulfills point number 11 of this wish list for 2014 that we published on January 1st. Now what we really need to complete the pop dream is points 19 and 20 to happen before the year is out.

3. Because we can go ‘told you so’, having first featured Charli back in 2009 and having blogged her journey up the pop mountain ever since. Doesn't she look different now? (See here)

4. Boom Clap is a very good pop song and deserves to be a hit. It's far better than that Cheryl Cole tune that sounds like a half arsed demo which will probably be number 1 on Sunday (Ok that sax bit is alright we’ll admit)

So let's celebrate. Charli XCX is currently number 3 in the mid-week UK singles chart. This is bloody brilliant. 

Now all we need is a proper UK tour. We believe this is going to happen. Until then, here’s one of the remixes of Boom Clap. Most of them are pretty atrocious but this one’s OK.

Charli XCX - Boom Clap (Elk Road Remix)

Charli XCX - Boom Clap (Video)

It was nearly 5 years ago that Charli XCX first appeared on this blog. Hasn't she changed? See here. Since then we’ve been documenting a fair amount of her journey, rather like Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings or Edmund Hillary going up Everest. Only without backpacks and snow. 

So where is Charli on that journey now?

Her first album managed to divide opinions both with the cool kids and the not-so-cool kids. We were very much on the thumbs up side, which by putting our thumbs up probably put us in with the not-so-cool kids. Her live shows have become increasingly brilliant and her own audience ever more so dressed up / sexy / energetic. She’s been involved with number 1 hits with Icona Pop and (stateside) with Iggy Azalea. 

Now here she is with the new video for a track that’s been doing the rounds for quite a while. Boom Clap is taken from The Fault In Our Stars movie (spoiler alert if you haven’t read the book, so shut your eyes now – Hazel doesn’t die) and tells us exactly where Charli is on her journey, and that’s destination brilliant pop star and she's virtually there.

Now all we need is the people in BBC Radio 1 land to recognise this and A list Boom Clap and give Charli XCX her best chance yet of having a hit on her own. Oh and Charli’s label people – a proper UK tour would be nice as well please, rather than just London and festival dates. We may have requested this before, but we'll keep going on about it till it happens.

Charli XCX - Boom Clap (Video)

Charli XCX - Allergic To Love

Last year Charli XCX told Groundsounds that her second album is inspired by French ye-ye pop and new wave bands like The Waitresses, Bow Wow Wow and Flying Lizard. “It’s very fast the whole process and nature of the music is like a rush. It is also very quick and simple and kind of punk. It’s also inspired by The Ramones and it’s very kind of shouty but clever.  The hooks are really dumb but in a really clever way. For example Bow Wow Wow’s, I Want Candy is a very simple hook, but it is also amazing, that is kind of what I am going for. I’m recording it really fast, like I don’t want to spend time on it I want to bang it out, it is much more live. I feel like everyone is expecting me to make like an electronic record but this isn’t an electronic record it is a very live record.”

So there you are. If you’re an electronic pop kid who wanted Charli XCX on mainstream radio you’re probably going to be disappointed for now. If however the idea of throwing yourself around a sweaty punk club sounds like a lot of fun stay tuned in, for last night Charli XCX gave an idea of what might be about to come by uploading a cover of Allergic To Love by Swedish alt-rock band Snuffed by the Yakuza. Why this song? The missing link is Patrik Berger, no not the retired Czech football player, but the producer of Lana Del Rey’s Off To The Races, Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, a number of Icona Pop tunes and (of course) Charli XCX’s You’re The One. Google his name and Snuffed by the Yakuza and all will become clear.

This one’s also going to turn a lot of the blog cognoscenti who have supported Charli XCX through her modern synthetic dark pop sound first album phase off – they were probably hoping she’d go down the ‘slo-mo sultry r n b meets electronic soul route’ that seems to be everywhere at the moment (note: this is not a criticism of ‘slo-mo sultry r n b’ – just a fact that there’s a lot of it around right now). But with its frantic fuzzed-out riffing, aa-aa-choo sneeze lyrics and cheap d-i-y drum machine sound (anyone remember Carter U.S.M?) this one minute and thirty seconds of shoutiness seems to be Charli XCX putting two fingers up at the music biz and those who wanted her to be the next homogenised pop star. Charli’s doing what she wants here and it sounds like she’s having a shit load of fun.

Charli XCX - Allergic To Love

Albums of the Year 2013 #6 - Charli XCX - True Romance

As what seems like every music blogger / website / critic / magazine / website / fan publishes their end of year list one thing is becoming clear, just as it does every year; pop music is being short-changed. For some reason when it comes to albums pop music is often not considered good enough by those who are ‘serious’ about their music. 

Which is a shame; because as we've said in a number of these posts (and we feel the need to bang on about it again to make sure our message gets across) 2013 has been a very good year for quality pop. Being a serious muso all the time is really dull. In our top 15 albums we’ve already placed the likes of London Grammar, Lorde and Little Boots (it’s also been a good year for the letter L) and coming in at a strong sixth in our list is one Charlotte Emma Aitchinson aka Charli XCX with her debut album True Romance. No doubt the serious brigade will laugh in our face at this choice, but whilst they’re off scowling at the floor we’ll been having fun.

True Romance is an album that roughs things up with a mix of 80’s electro-pop, post Brit-pop girl band references and glossy but edgy production that embraces dance, house, electronica and even a little bit of hip-hop. It’s an album with a very modern synthetic sound but is painted with a darker wash of new wave and interesting, sometimes messy ideas. It’s a pop album from the city, not the countryside. The lyrics are (depending on the song) trashy, shallow, romantic, sad, sweary and try-hard-cool, in other words exactly what you’d expect from someone who was just a teenager when these songs were written. Probably when Charli is 35 she’ll look back at some of her songs here and be slightly embarrassed by them, but we suspect there will be part of her that is also nostalgically proud; because True Romance is a cracker. Sure go and listen to ‘serious’ music (you’ll find a few of those in our top 5) but have some fun with this hyper-modern class-A album as well.

Charli XCX - What I Like



Charli XCX - You're The One

Charli XCX - SuperLove (Video)

Some stuff about Charli XCX:

1. She wears amazing shoes.

2. There are a lot of fan accounts for Charli XCX on twitter. 

3. If we were a young woman (we’re not) we’d quite fancy being Charli XCX. Being Charli XCX looks like it would be a lot of fun.

4. Her debut album is one of our favourite pop albums of the year (but not our absolute favourite)

5. Even although she only released the album this year, she’s already written plenty of songs for the 2nd one.

6. SuperLove is the first of those songs from that 2nd album.

7. SuperLove makes us ask this question: How long will it be before Charli XCX actually has a hit on her own? (Rather than another Icona Pop style collaboration or a big-on-the-blogs underground pop hit like everything from Stay Away onwards)

8. SuperLove (which sounds like a retro video game in places) makes us think that the answer to the above question is not that long (although maybe not quite yet). This one isn't as edgy as previous efforts and therefore probably won't find quite as much favour with the bloggers (Google search correction - we were wrong).

9. “This is my most favourite video i've ever worked on. Me and Ryan Andrews (the director of SuperLove) ran around Japan for 36 hours straight shooting everything. Everyone was so delirious. The scene with the bike gang was amazing. When they all turned up there was so much roaring from all their engines it was like I was in Akira. They were all super cool with loads of tattoos and killer bikes. The whole thing was such a whirlwind, I got to dance with robots and ride a motorbike which was kinda cool,” says Charli XCX of the video.

10. Well done Charli XCX. In the game of good pop bad pop you win again.

Charli XCX - SuperLove (Video)

Charli XCX - Take My Hand (Video)

5 things about Charli XCX and her new video for Take My Hand.

1. Take My Hand is taken from Charli’s debut album True Romance, which all in all is very good. In fact we’d take that very good a little further and say it’s nearly amazing. Not quite, but nearly. It’s certainly up there with Little Boots’ Nocturnes as one of the pop albums of the year so far. Little Boots’ work is in places more melancholy and has dashes of sodium lit late night minimalism whilst Charli’s is more late night rainbow coloured hyperactivity but with plenty of streaks of inky gothic black running through it as well. But they're both very good nearly amazing.

2. Take My Hand is Charli’s pill popping night out on the town losing control dance anthem. (Warning: Drugs are not good). “Can you feel the neon lights? It's like the Milky Way. I’ve swallowed something stupid it’s making me stay awake,” she vocalises. Of course maybe she isn’t referring to a naughty little drug and actually the “like the milky way” lyrics are referring to another similar chocolate product – maybe a Fudge or Mars perhaps? (Warning: Too much chocolate is also not good, it really can keep you awake.)

3. Three years ago we wrote more about confectionery and Charli XCX : “There is something about her riot in a sweetshop zest that makes us want to climb out of the bedroom window late at night and go raving with her, whatever the consequences.” This video is that going raving with her moment, paying homage to Charli’s early electroclash roots in a raw (but noticeably unsweaty) club. The club in question is Corsica Studios at Elephant And Castle in London.

4. We’ve seen Charli XCX being referenced as “Tumblr pop” in certain places. Let’s be clear about this, Tumblr may be an internet platform but it isn’t a genre of music. After all who would be a Wordpress band ? Grizzly Bear perhaps? And what about an old school Blogspot band like the platform this blog is on? Maybe Suede? No, it’s all wrong. Very wrong. But this song is very right. 

5. Let’s dance. It's the weekend and this is great pop music.

Charli XCX - Take My Hand (Video)