Charli XCX is a singer-songwriter out of Cambridge, UK. She is well-known for her hedonistic brand of synth pop, which draws comparisons to the dark pop aesthetic of Zola Jesus, Siouxsie Sioux, Grimes and Danish singer-songwriter MØ.
Her youthful electro spirit draws influence from the Ed Banger crowd, most notably the sassy girl-rapper, Uffie, but also the smutty, crashing electro-funk of Justice and SebastiAn. Her bratty, rebellious edge owes itself to hip-hop influences, the likes of Eminem and Lil’ Wayne, while her sound is unmistakably pop, paying homage to the roots of the MTV generation, Britney and Christina Aguilera.
She recorded her unofficial debut, “14”, at the eponymous age of 14 with a loan from her parents and released her first tracks on Myspace, eventually getting her the recognition of a guy known as “Chas”, who ran illegal warehouse raves where she played her first gigs with the unconditional support of her parents.
She then got signed to Atlantic Records, and released her first official EP “You’re The One”, featuring the title single, which made the Billboard charts.
Her official debut full-length on Atlantic, “True Romance” (2013) – its namesake being the Tarantino-penned 1993 film with Christian Slater – blended the brooding gothic synth-pop of the 1980s with the recalcitrant, twee girl-pop of the 1990s.
Her latest, “Sucker” (2014) takes her sound in a more pop-punk, alternative direction, with nods to Weezer, The Hives, and The Ramones as inspirations. The album is also marked with a star-studded production team, including Norwegian DJ, Cashmere Cat, and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij.
Charli is the heralded co-writer of “I Love It”, which was to be Swedish duo Icona Pop’s breakout hit. She wrote it upon the request of the duo’s producer, who sent her some audio tracks. She scrawled the lyrics with a kind of hell-raising pop-punkness that well-befitted the duo. It got them a No.7 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after featuring in an episode of US coming-of-age drama “Girls”. After the episode aired the track amassed a great number of digital downloads and sales.
Charli didn’t record the song herself due to a bizarre neurological condition called synaesthesia, the tendency for the senses to involuntarily cross over so it is possible to “smell” words and “taste” colours. In her case, she feels she is able to “see” sounds. She later reflected that “I Love It” didn’t have the right “look” to fit her work. Nevertheless she performed the song with Icona Pop at South by Southwest festival in Texas, US, where both acts were playing.
Ethan Regan
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