Review Summary: Music
Guys, I’m so bored. It’s only been a week but the discourse around this album is so boring. It’s post-
Brat, it’s the anti-
Brat, it’s a deliberate flop, an unfinished draft, a calculated choice, a rough draft, a voice note, an ironic masterpiece. I’ve participated in the discourse but I’m over it already – these takes are all too extreme for what is a perfectly solid, 7/10 album.
So let’s talk about the music; skip the fashion and film. Lyrically, this album is probably Charli’s weakest. I definitely appreciate the theme of struggling to adapt to mega-stardom, however her delivery often lacks nuance. Some moments are intended to be edgy in a tongue-in-cheek way, like the whispered “***ing shoot me” in “Camera”, or the “maybe I ***ed your Dad” in “Wink Wink”, but it doesn’t make them any less cringe. Most egregiously, the entirety of “Card Declined” could be a 13 year old goth’s first attempt at slam poetry.
Now to the positives – since releasing “!Franchesckaar!” as a pre-fame teenager, Charli XCX has been one of the best hook-writers of her generation. She can write a chorus that burrows into your brain and begs for the replay button, a sensation that is heightened on an album full of 2-minute songs. “Wink Wink” is an instantly-addictive sugar rush, and “Persona” hits all the right notes of pathos in its unfurling melody. As usual, there are bangers.
I brought up that buried 2008 single of Charli’s because it showcased an unpolished, nobody-to-please grunginess in it’s production that she hasn’t fully returned to until
Music, Fashion, Film. I was initially turned off by this album’s raw, guitar-driven instrumentation, deeming it too scant, but further listens have revealed the genius of this minimalistic approach. As The Strokes proved on
Is This It, a backdrop of simplistic-yet-distorted guitar chords can be the best way to showcase big hooks without compromising the angst that underpins the album.
Despite feeling more like the think piece to end all think pieces,
Music, Fashion, Film is an album at the end of the day. A brilliant artist’s most flawed album so far, but an important addition to her discography. It’s just Music, and should be judged as such.
