I love almost everything Charli did, so it's difficult for me to rank it since my level of enjoyment for each project is almost the same, no differences, but if I had to rank it...
1. XCX World/Vroom Vroom: I just... I just love Charli x SOPHIE. The duo. These are the projects I have the most fun with, the most satisfactory ones. Vroom Vroom is music history and the scrapped album will also be the moment it reaches the surface. That's why these two projects are my favorite of all Charli's.
While "Vroom Vroom" is evidently much darker, more menacing and left-field than "XCX", the latter, or at least the version of the tracklist I arranged for it is pop perfection to me, all of the songs are sticky, fun, fantastic, forward-thinking, effortless, unpretentious, original and still fresh. Both of them are.
It's a special type of sound that will never come back.
2. Number 1 Angel: I struggle putting the mixtapes sisters against each other, but the thing with N1A is that is just... pure pop bliss, no need for lots of bleep bloops, no need for metallic snares, no need for a lot of experimentation, just great hooks and catchiness. This is what a pop album needs to be at the CORE. I also have a lot of fun listening to it, no filler, all killers. That's why I consider it to be an essential Charli's release and a good entry in order to initiate someone into Charli's discography.
3. Pop 2: I obviously love popsy (...), it scratches an itch that N1A doesn't do that much (and vice versa). I like that for this project Charli and AG went for a more erratic and clumsy approach to the programming and production, this project has a clumsiness and surprise factor that others don't, and a glitchiness that no other record has managed to portray as effectively. It's also has a much more cohesive sound than N1A.
The only disadvantage I find it's that it might not be that all-killer-no-filler that N1A is, while that one for me has a consistent flow and energy in its tracklist, Pop 2 certainly has a bit more of an up-and-down (no pun intended) at the 2nd half, just a pair of songs that, while I like them a lot, I don't find as impactful as the highlights ("Delicious" and "Porsche"), but just by a little difference.
But anyway, this mixtape is music history as well. I just wish N1A received the same type of treatment as well for being the evidence that a pop record can be great with almost no experimentation, only love for pop music. That's what Charli is about at heart.
4. Charli: This was my 1st era as a stan (if the 2018 standalone releases don't count), so I have lots of personal memories with it. I remember feeling a bit mixed the 1st time I listened to it, I was amazed by the highlights, but a bit underwhelmed by the middle part of the record for some reason. So I do understand why it has such a mixed reputation in the fandom.
Nowadays? I say it's a great record (or two assembled together), There's not a single track I dislike here, I love individually them all for different reasons, but the fact that this is a collection of tracks from different sessions, eras and different periods is very obvious and can be heard in its tracklist, but I don't find it to be a huge problem.
Nonetheless, somehow, the whole album manages to carry a very silver quality to it, metallic, liquid (maybe I'm influenced by the artwork), which makes it strangely cohesive at the same time as messy. It's a wonderful record and a reflection of the complex, vulnerable, emotional and living-rollercoaster the person called Charli is.
5. how i'm feeling now: Don't get me wrong, I love this album quite a lot, I actually would put it higher if it wasn't for the fact that letting myself be guided a bit more by my intuition here. This was my 2nd era as a stan and also the era I remember the most vividly and intensely. I remember watching all the Zoom calls and whatnot. This album also responds to a time that this type of wave of experimental pop music was becoming more about being abrasive and aggressive and less about being bubblegum.
There's not a single track I dislike here either, but for some reason, this album feels like the afterthought of an afterthought for me, it's strange. Feels like the end of an era. It also feels like a smaller but more concise version of the self-titled record, is that a bad thing? No, I like its brevity.
What I love about this album is Charli opening up completely about her feelings and vulnerability in contrast with the overconfident figure and persona she herself built years prior (that can be appreciated most in my favorite records, in fact). But something tells me to put it in the 5th position...
X. CRASH: I need more time with it, I don't know where to put it and what to think of it at the moment so I'll put it in here. I have heard the leak because I was very desperate, but I'll listen to it again on March 18th. But I like it.
6. True Romance / Super Ultra / Heartbreaks & Earthquakes: Look... I appreciate this era a lot, and I know many people here grew up with it, that's enviable if you ask me. So I'm not going to be the typical post-VV stan, or even worse, a post-HIFN stan and say it's bad because it isn't, but it's also far from perfect. But I think it's special.
Every time I listen to this album and these mixtapes I see them as a product of its time, I think Charli was still finding her voice in them, BUT her potential and the intention to push the boundaries were there since the beginning. I understand that the mixtapes, especially Super Ultra consist of Charli putting her own hooks and lyrics over tracks made by other artists, and this is where you can notice one of Charli's natural talents: the power of making a track her own. Which is something that still happens currently, no matter who she works with.
In True Romance, you can also notice her early intentions to experiment with pop music, inspired by the 80s, synthpop, and new wave in this case. In my humble opinion, I think the results were pretty mixed here, a bit unpolished, still a bit immature, this also can be seen in the mixing, the mix is... a bit strange, too bright and dirty, but nothing inherently bad.
But there are undeniable jewels, my favorite ones being: "Nuclear Season", "You (Ha Ha Ha)", "Take My Hand" (I LOVE THIS TRACK), "Stay Away", "So Far Away", "Lock You Up", as well as
"Velvet Dreaming (Luv)" from Super Ultra. Unfortunately, the rest of the tracks don't do it a lot for me, they sound like filler, but hopefully, some of them will grow on me.
So the intention and talent were always there, but needed to grow up and polish. I don't think this Charli is radically different from the one post-VV, they're literally the same. I always hear the True Romance soul and essence in many tracks from the subsequent eras, and I'm happy she's doing it again with CRASH. Again, she just needed to grow up.
7. SUCKER: This album is my 1st era when I was aware of Charli, but not yet a stan.
Back then I knew "I Love It", "Fancy" and "Boom Clap" and I actually really liked all of them, especially the latter, which I freaking love. But I wish I could say the same about the whole album... Honestly, I really want to love this album, I listen to it once in a while to see if it grows on me, but I always end up just picking "Boom Clap" and "Doing It". For me, this feels like her
most impersonal and unremarkable project ever, and I say it while I try to appreciate it (Hell, I even love the album cover, so badass, she looks gorgeous there).
I love pop music, but I always get overwhelmed by the exaggerated production of the songs, and the quantity of filler the album has. Even "Body of My Own", which message I really like. I can also appreciate "London Queen", "Famous" I love her voice she says "FUCK YOU, SUCKER", I even kind of appreciate "Break the Rules". But this album was inspired by different genres and eras of music whose original exponents and bigger names did obviously better, here it feels like an imitation of those different styles of music instead of an evolution.
While this is her most traditionally mainstream project ever, I still can see that alternative-experimental sparkle shining here and there. She still makes melodies like these, she still makes hooks like these, in fact, "Doing It" and "New Shapes" are pretty similar, and I think "Boom Clap" is pure pop perfection and one of her best songs, but her subsequent projects really managed to surpass and improve what its found here.
I think this album and TR could have been much better in their own way, their own terms, with no need for the "sounds design" or "loud noises" (although they're pretty loud themselves), but I think Charli being very young and still finding her identity as an artist, as well as possible 3rd people interests (like producers and the label), is what prevented these projects to be the best versions of themselves.
8. 14: Yeah... She's cute though.
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