The Daily Spin, December 20
Charli XCX | Crash
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: CRASH (2022)
Artist: Charli XCX
Link:
Seeing Charli XCX’s evolution as an artist from features and writing credits on songs like Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ or IconaPop’s ‘I Love It’ to the power-pop luminary that she is now has been one of the more intriguing journeys to watch throughout the past decade. To see it come to what feels like its next step with CRASH is in many ways a very cool step.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t dispel one of the basic sentiments that I have held regarding Charli for some time - that she is, at heart, best as a feature artist.
CRASH is enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable. It’s Gaga-esque synthpop with flavors of Kim Petras and SOPHIE, but it’s done better by each of those other three - and though Charli’s vocals shine when allowed to, these club-aligned beats do her a disservice and make it clear that, for her myriad talents, this is not the best expression of her sound.
Rating: 7.9/10
Best Tracks: Good Ones; Move Me
Worst Tracks: Baby