#the pixies one yea its catchy

[sufranstevens]

first listens of july coincide with an extremely hectic time of my life!

[neo-losangeles]

here is my review for charli xcx’s number 1 angel. (which i am pitching for the school news paper, as a writing sample, so i can write music/tv for them.)

 AGH IM SO EXCITED AND IM HAPPY THAT I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THIS REVIEW. its like 700 words so that is pretty short and concise  highlighting the strengths and weakness of a record that i think is really cool. anyways, wish me luck. I'm pitching this to a nb-poc frat bro who writes about future x__x 

Standing alone in red with a white rose we find a confident Charli XCX fully invested in her neon-nihilism of her latest effort, ‘Number 1 Angel.’ In the porous space of mixtape and album rendered by her record labels indecisiveness. XCX’s cathartic relief of releasing new music finds her own lane in between pop’s mainstream and it’s avant garde. However, XCX’s talent has yet to be warranted by a higher level of success. It has had its ebbs and flows reaching highs in 2012’s featured ‘I Love It!’ with Icona Pop, positioning her as a writer who can write a song of the summer. In 2014 reaching a double-hit of the assisted Iggy Azalea ‘Fancy’ and her own glittery song ‘ Boom Clap.’ Her latest effort ‘Number 1 Angel’ defiant like her pose on the album cover exudes a non-chalantness of ever reaching Rihanna-esque heights and is much more comfortable in her own reckless self-possession and agency reflected in the music’s neon-nihilism.

‘Roll With Me,’ a standout, is a fluttering track highlighting XCX’s sweetness in her voice only to be juxtapositioned to Sophie’s hyper-feminine tinker toybots ‘Yeah-yea’ chants against a demented drumdrops. Number 1 Angel is situated at the club, specifically at after-hours like in song ‘3 Am’ featuring Mo. The pseudo tropical-house record on obsessing over a hook-up only to be victorious and break the masochistic habit.

Travis Scott’s ‘Goosebumps’ is a song of reference for the record’s interests in moody goth-trap music.  ‘Blame It On You’’s rap-sung verses example pop’s pop’s recentering of hip-hop influences sonically and vocally even if it’s embellished by PC-music’s manic pixie vocals. The two can meet and still exude a coolness like in opening  track, ‘Dreamer’ featuring Starrah, responsible for Rihanna’s ‘Needed Me,’ and Raye offer two verses that match up to XCX’s confidence that make for an ambitious girl group between them.

Finally, arriving to ‘Babygirl,’ gifts the listener a break from the heavy-club smoke for a lighter sunnier song featuring British ‘throw-back’ rapper Uffie. ‘Babygirl’ full of 80’s sunny synth showcasing XCX’s talents of writing a catchy hook; however, is eclipsed by Uffie’s superfun performance, “Gloss on my lips, pop/Sun in my eyes/Goes the other liquor from inside.” The problematics of having too many features even if XCX feels a sense of camaraderie with her peers for having making it thus far, allowing them a shine, often eclipses one of pop music’s most exciting ladies.

‘Babygirl,’ nonetheless, showcases XCX’s vulnerability in her performance and in her voice. A principle factor of why a cheesy record like 2014’s Boom Clap resonated with many becoming a hit. Number 1 Angel’s version of ‘Boom Clap’ is ‘Emotional,’ a record on the teetering lines of guilt and pleasure of having enough self-control to not cheat. The lyrics, themselves, read outloud are shallow yet it is in her vocal delivery where the listener can feel the longing for wanting someone you can’t have. ‘ILY2’ like ‘Emotional’ propose this silly lyric dilemma which can only be answered through XCX’s sincere vulnerability of the refusal of being vulnerable and tender. She sings, “I don’t talk a lot/So you should listen up, I mean it when I say/I’m not afraid, it’s okay/You know I love you too,” alongside Danny L Harle’s cutesy synths. The last half of the record is spent back in the club only to find the drugs are wearing off and it’s almost

5 am like mid-tempo ‘Drugs,’ featuring Atlanta singer Abra. A record that is most fun at the end where it’s hypnotic-psychedelic drop capturing the shameful yet familiar ecstasy of messing around with an ex you just can’t let go.  

XCX found a great balance of working with pop producers and the PC music collective eliminating the worst parts of them:2-D femininity avatars and uncool chaos that ends up sounding like noise. XCX brings her song writer pen that keep up, animate, and sometimes override the over-production like in ‘Lipgloss’ featuring Chicago rapper Cupcakke. Here, again, XCX’s voice is flattened into a hyper-feminine robot; yet, her self-possessed confidence exudes overriding Sophie’s parody ironic hyper-pink synths. Cupcakke’s filthy verses are hilariously boisterous shouting out iCarly and being above it like an ovary.

Closing the record with a convincing argument of not having the mainstream bend to her will rather than her bending too theirs. An effort that has not been electronically exciting since, perhaps, Britney Spears Blackout. Number 1 Angel is a hell of a ride asking its listeners to come to a party steering far way of Ed Sheeran's formulaic pop of ‘putting that body on him;’ but rather into a more femme and darker after-hours of pop music.