CRASH by Charli XCX
Crash (stylised in all caps) is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Charli XCX, released on 18 March 2022. It is her last album to be released under her current record contract with Atlantic Records. Charli announced the album title, release date, and artwork on 4 November 2021. Her website was also updated with information about the album's 2022 tour. The album was preceded by the four singles "Good Ones", "New Shapes" featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek, "Beg for You" featuring Rina Sawayama, "Baby" and two promotional singles, "Every Rule" and "Used to Know Me". The sound consists of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s-inspired synth-pop, dance-pop and power pop. Background and recording In September 2019, Charli XCX released her third studio album Charli to critical acclaim. Another version of the album was originally slated for a May 2017 release, although Charli later on decided to scrap that project following an accident that later resulted on most of its demo tracks getting leaked on the Internet. In an interview with the music magazine The Fader, she explained: "I'm not supposed to say this, I'm supposed to be like, in it, 'this album (Charli), stream it, buy it', but I'm like, already thinking about the next one, it's done, I'm onto the next level". She stated on 14 October of the same year that she was already working on it. On 25 November 2019, she stated that her current plans for the future year included the creation of two new albums (the second being the sixth, which, if not released in 2020, would have been released in 2021). During the months of January and February 2020, Charli published Instagram stories of herself in the studio with a variety of producers, including Patrik Berger and Justin Raisen, both of whom had previously collaborated on Charli's debut album True Romance. Her executive producer, A. G. Cook, as well as Deaton Chris Anthony also had recording sessions with Charli. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, recording sessions for the album were canceled in March. On 6 April 2020, Charli XCX announced through a public Zoom call with fans that she would be working on a new album in self-isolation, with the tentative title How I'm Feeling Now. Charli decided to postpone the "Janet album''s sessions and began working on her fourth studio album on the spur of the moment. Work on this album began in Charli's home on 3 April and continued until the album's release date of 15 May. Charli first mentioned the "Janet album" theme on 6 April, when she posted a screenshot of a conversation with A. G. Cook. "And I wanted to do Janet album in September into quicker album in December", she said, implying that she originally planned to release the "Janet album" in September and a "quicker", more impromptu album in December of the same year. Charli hinted on 12 June that she was back at work on the "Janet album" now that How I'm Feeling Now was out. On 1 November 2021, she tweeted that she would be disclosing mysteries about the album that week, and five hours later, she revealed the collaborators she would be working with on the album: Lotus IV, Christine and the Queens, Caroline Polachek, Oscar Holter, Digital Farm Animals, Rina Sawayama, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jason Evigan, Justin Raisen, SadPony, Ariel Rechtshaid, Ilya, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mike Wise, and Jon Shave. Oscar Holter had already been confirmed as a producer for the album with the single "Good Ones", and a collaboration with Rina Sawayama had been teased since 2019, though according to both artists, there were different attempts at a collaboration; the song that ended up being released was titled "Beg for You", and was produced by Digital Farm Animals. A collaboration with Caroline and Christine, with production from Deaton Chris Anthony, was also teased a few days before the announcement, which turned out to be the track "New Shapes", which acts as the album's second single and was released on 4 November 2021. Release and promotion On 15 August 2021, following the announcement of the album's first song, she tweeted a picture of a grave with her own name engraved on it and the death date "March 18 2022", which was thought to be the album's release day. The next day, she tweeted a behind-the-scenes video of a photoshoot of that grave, utilizing a fragment of "Good Ones". This grave would be featured in "Good Ones"' music video after it was released. It was widely hinted that the album would be published on 18 March 2022, because after the release of "Good Ones", she stated that the album might be released around that date. The album was formally announced on 4 November, an hour before the release of the second song, on all of Charli's social media, along with the announcement of a 37-date tour, titled "Crash: The Live Tour", across North America and Europe and a link to pre-save the album. It was also revealed that the album will have 12 tracks and last for 33 minutes. Later that day, Charli went live on TikTok and shared new snippets of new tracks, including the then-unknown tracks "Baby", "Constant Repeat", "Beg For You", and three other snippets. On 19 December 2021, Charli posted an Instagram post with the caption "2022 sneak peak...", which included numerous images related to work for the album cycle, including images of photo op and recording behind the scenes, a talk with Rina about their collaboration, and a video of Charli practicing with background dancers for the track "Baby". Throughout late 2021 and early January 2022, Charli continued to share the samples she teased on TikTok, most notably the tracks "Beg for You" and "Baby". On 4 January, Charli uploaded a snippet of what appeared to be a music video for the song "Baby". On 20 January, it was reported via iTunes that the album's fifth track will be 2 minutes and 48 seconds long, which was later confirmed to be "Beg for You". On the same day, Charli revealed the title and a studio snippet of her collaboration with Rina Sawayama, "Beg for You". On 21 February 2022, the singer announced that a deluxe edition will be released the same week as the standard album. Singles "Good Ones" was released as the album's lead single on 2 September 2021. It is a dance track mixed with synth-pop and electropop. The song received acclaim for critics with most of them highlighting its synth-pop production. Its music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, and filmed in Mexico. was released the same day as the song. "New Shapes" was released on 4 November 2021 as the album's second single, featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. The latter track was also met with positive reviews from critics for her move away from hyperpop and towards synth-pop. The music video was released a few days after. Charli XCX was set to appear on the ninth episode of Saturday Night Live's 47th season alongside Christine and the Queens and Polachek to promote the singles, but the performances were cancelled due to the rise of the coronavirus Omicron variant in New York City. The performance was later rescheduled to 5 March 2022. "Beg for You", a collaboration with Rina Sawayama, was released on 27 January 2022 as the album's third single. The song is a UK garage track with elements of 90's house music. It samples September's 2006 single "Cry for You", as well as the song "Don't Cry" by Belgian dance group Milk Inc. It received acclaim from music critics, highlighting its catchiness. "Baby" was released on 1 March 2022 as the album's fourth single. The track is an 80's-inspired post-disco track with new jack swing elements. It has received positive reviews for its catchiness and sultry production. On 14 March 2022, "Every Rule" was released as a promotional single, along with "Used to Know Me" on 17 March 2022. Themes When teasing and promoting the record since May 2021, Charli took on an evil, demonic or soulless persona, so as to play into a deal-with-the-devil idea. Visuals for the album include "femme fatale powers" and a multitude of "dark spells and curses" as well as signature nods to both cars and car crashes. Its title and overall aesthetic was inspired by David Cronenberg's 1996 movie Crash. On 8 April 2020, Charli told a fan through Zoom that the album was influenced by Janet Jackson's music, an artist who has frequently been cited by PC Music label producers such as A.G. as well as EasyFun as a source of inspiration. Then, on April 21st, she told Stereogum that this was her most polished album yet, both musically and artistically, and that she was currently listening to a lot of Janet Jackson's songs. She indicated that the album will be a musical departure for her. On May 5th, she indicated that it will be her most "pop" album yet, and that she wanted the song videos to be extremely theatrical, even suggesting that she play different characters in them. On October 29th, 2020, she said that while there was still a lot of Janet Jackson influence on the album at the time, it is no longer exclusively influenced by her, and there are now other inspirations. On 23 May 2021, she indicated that the album was "for the True Romance angels" and that she wanted to have a song that is "Stay Away 2.0". Then, on 8 July, Charli posted that she was extremely into songs that she did not compose. During this month, Charli began to publish a lot of tweets and Instagram photographs indicating that the album would be her "evil era". One of them reads, "Tip for young artists: sell your soul for money and fame." Music and lyrics Crash eschews Charli XCX's previous hyperpop and futurepop work, in favor of "punchy power pop", 80's synth-pop, and dance-pop, with elements of pop-funk, dream pop, eurodance, disco, nu-disco and "post-internet glitch". Album opener "Crash" is a new jack swing song with hard funk drums. "Good Ones" explores electropop and synthwave, and "New Shapes" continues the album's 80's synth-pop sound. She samples europop songs "Show Me Love" and "Cry for You" on "Used to Know Me" and "Beg for You", respectively, in an effort to strike a balance between nostalgia and futurism. "Beg for You" additionally is a UK garage song that evokes 2000s bubblegum and 90s house. "Baby" is a post-disco, dance-pop, and pop-funk song with new jack swing elements reminiscent of Janet Jackson's Control. "Lightning" has flamenco flourishes, while "Yuck" fuses a 70s funk and boogie baseline with disco and "hyper-modern synths". She has listed Madonna, Janet Jackson, Cameo, Sister Sledge, Serge Gainsbourg, Steve Vai, Black Eyed Peas, Charlie Puth, Cyndi Lauper, Rick James, Taylor Dayne, Boy Meets Girl, and Belinda Carlisle as musical inspirations for the album. Featured artists on the album include Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek on "New Shapes", as well as Rina Sawayama on "Beg for You"; the songs were released as the second and third singles from the album, respectively. Producers on the album include Oscar Holter, and Lotus IV and Deaton Chris Anthony, on the singles "Good Ones" and "New Shapes", respectively. A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Digital Farm Animals, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jason Evigan, Justin Raisen, Ariel Rechtshaid, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jon Shave, and Mike Wise have also been revealed to have produced other tracks on the album. Writing for Clash, Joe Rivers said that "Crash is certainly a mixed bag, but it does demonstrate that, whatever her motivations and mindset, Charli XCX is an artist we should treasure. Even when she's not at her best, she displays enough nous and melody to stand head and shoulders above practically all her rivals". Elly Watson from DIY gave the album rating 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "may be closing a chapter for Charli but it is in no way a swan song." and also added that "Instead, she once again explores new ventures, crafting a pop album that celebrates the old classics as well as the new, and cements her status as a true pop trailblazer".
“Right now, I’m still very much restless,” Charli XCX tells Apple Music. “Because I know that I would be an excellent humongous pop star. But I also unfortunately know that there’s a vision of who I am in the mainstream’s mind. It’s a constant headfuck, to be honest. While I’m a very defiant person, I’m also a human, and sometimes I do just want to be accepted, and I don’t understand why I’m not totally—even though sometimes I relish in the fact that I’m not.” Charlotte Aitchison is one of pop music’s more self-aware, self-deprecating and self-examining artists. <i>CRASH</i> is her fifth studio album, and the final one to be released as part of a long-time record deal. It’s partly, as Charli says, an experiment. An opportunity to utilise a major label’s resources and dress up her left-leaning pop in something ultra luxe. A bold and refreshingly transparent attempt to move up a few rungs, it’s a considered move also designed to clear up some of Charli’s nagging what-ifs. “I’ve always questioned myself,” she says. “And it’s why I’ve made this entire album, really. I ask myself, am I a likeable artist? Am I too opinionated? Do I look too weird? Am I too annoying? If I shut up and put out certain songs and do the right features, will I become more accepted, more liked, more commercial?” Of course, Charli’s notoriously engaged fan base—with whom she exchanged ideas, including song lyrics, directly online for 2020’s quarantine album <i>how i’m feeling now</i>—would argue she doesn’t need any such validation. “It’s a blessing and a curse, to be extremely honest,” she says of her “Angels”. “I’m very lucky to have the fan base that I have, who are extremely invested in literally every breath I take. They are very vocal and very smart, which draws me to them, because they’ve got great taste and amazing ideas—as I found out when doing <i>how i’m feeling now</i>. But you can’t please everyone. I’ve done so many different things that people are always going to gravitate to certain eras. Plus, I think that there’s an element where they like to root for an underdog, or an on-the-fringes personality like mine. Because we feel like we’ve been in it together for a really long time, the online discourse can be so vigorous. So I can’t lie, sometimes it’s a bit of a headfuck, because whilst I absolutely adore them, I don’t make music for them specifically when I’m sat in the studio—I’m making it for me. And I don’t think they would admire me as the artist I am if I just kept giving them what they expected.” It’s time to listen for yourself. Explore Charli’s premium pop with her own track-by-track guide. <b>“Crash”</b> “Until maybe a week before I made this song, the album was going to be called <i>Sorry If I Hurt You</i>. But one day, I was driving in my car and <i>CRASH</i> just came to me, and I called A. G. Cook. Even though he wasn't a <i>huge</i> part of this record, he’s still very much my creative confidant. He agreed it made sense with the constant car references in my work—and I like the onomatopoeia, I like how it references [2014 single] ‘Boom Clap’ and I like how it feels much more punchy and in-your-face than <i>how i’m feeling now</i>. I felt that the title needed a song, so A. G. and I got in the studio pretty quickly and knew we needed to make it sound extremely ’80s—if you could bottle the album into one song, this is it. We—plus the song’s co-producer George Daniel—had been sending a lot of new jack swing beats back and forth, and I knew I wanted this guitar solo, and to add these crazy Janet-esque stabs.” <b>“New Shapes” (feat. Caroline Polachek & Christine and the Queens)</b> “Caroline, Christine and I had worked together many times in different forms, and it was time for the three of us to come together. And actually, this song was recorded a long time ago—pre-pandemic. I like how it’s an anti-hero song. We’re saying to the love figure, ‘I haven’t got what you need from me, because I am not typical. I don't operate in the way that you want me to. I want multiple partners. I want somebody else. I want no convention within sex and love.’ And I like that as a statement right after the sound of a car crash in the previous song. To do that song with them—two artists who I really feel have such a unique, defiant and topsy-turvy vision of what pop music is—felt really classic and right for us. There’s a true connection between us now, in music and in our personal lives.” <b>“Good Ones”</b> “I think this song deserved to be bigger, but I will always think that of my work. But I do think it established the Cliffs Notes version of what the record is—it’s got a darkness to it, and it’s very pop. I like how drastic the jump was between coming out of <i>how i’m feeling now</i> into this, both sonically and in how they were made. <i>how i’m feeling now</i> was obviously my quarantine album made in my living room over five weeks by me and two trusted collaborators. This song is produced by Oscar Holter—an extremely active part of the Max Martin camp—and not really written hugely by myself but by two amazing topliners, Caroline Ailin and Noonie Bao. So it’s the absolute polar opposite.” <b>“Constant Repeat”</b> “This song features an imaginary scenario I created in my head, where I fell for somebody but imagined that they didn’t want me—which turned out to not be the case. But it was this fear that I had, and my prediction of the situation. I think it’s interesting that you can convince yourself of that. When you are falling for someone, unfortunately, I think human nature just crushes in on you and tells you you're not good enough and fills you with doubt and dread and fear and all of those things. This song really poured out of me quite late in the album process and it just felt so real and natural.” <b>“Beg for You” (feat. Rina Sawayama)</b> “Rina wanted to do something uptempo together, and give our fans a bit more of a moment. So when this song idea bubbled up, I called her immediately. She rewrote the second verse, and sounded incredible on it. It’s a very perfect-storm moment, because we’re two artists operating within the pop sphere, but always challenging it and doing something a little bit more left. She also has that hardcore, diehard fanbase—there’s a lot of crossover. Whilst maybe some of them were expecting something a little bit more experimental from us, I think, in a way, you can't deny that this actually is the perfect song for us in that we are paying a homage to a gay anthem [‘Cry for You’ by September]. She's queer, I'm a queer ally, we're coming together to really just live our best lives and sing an iconic pop song.” <b>“Move Me”</b> “This song came from a writing camp that I was invited to by [US producer and songwriter] Ian Kirkpatrick. I hadn’t done a very classic camp for a while. Not because I'm anti them—I actually think I thrive quite well in them and enjoy them. I ended up writing this with [US songwriter and producer] Amy Allen. We’re actually polar opposites in terms of our styles, which is why this song ended up being so beautiful—the aggressive parts of the song where I was basically yelling into a mic are very me, then you have the balance of Amy’s gorgeous verses. As we were doing it, everyone kept talking about how it’d be a great song for Halsey. I was like, ‘No, I love Halsey, but this is a great song for me and I’m fucking keeping it.’ People talk about writing-camp songs being fake and constructed in a test tube or whatever. But it’s very real. We write from our reality. That’s why we’re good songwriters.” <b>“Baby”</b> “This was one of the first tracks I made for this album, probably pre-pandemic, and with Justin Raisen—who was a very crucial part of my first album, <i>True Romance</i> [2013]. So it felt really good to be going back and working with him in the same house where we made part of the first album. This was a song that I always felt was so passionate and fiery and sexy. And I think the making of this song helped me feel powerful, and want to explore the sexier side of pop music and my artistry. It’s the song that helped me decide that I wanted to dance for this campaign, because I just couldn't stop wanting to move to it whilst we were making it.” <b>“Lightning”</b> “It began as one of those half demos that I took away and lived with. I then called up Ariel Rechtshaid, who was also a huge part of the first album, alongside Justin Raisen, and said, ‘OK, I have this song. I want to do <i>True Romance in 2022</i> with it.” And while I know he’s not really on that hype currently, I told him he was the king of the ’80s and if he felt it needed to go down that road, I trusted him because he has the most impeccable taste. So he sent it back to me, and there was a question mark over the Spanish guitar moment, which goes into a chorus. I sent it to A. G. to ask his opinion. He was like, ‘It's insane. I laughed out loud.’ And I was like, ‘OK, great. We're keeping it.’” <b>“Every Rule”</b> “It's the true story of me meeting my previous partner, and both of us being in relationships but knowing that we were meant to be together. I think that that's a story that a lot of my friends have also experienced—and obviously there's a lot of controversy that comes with that circumstance. People are afraid to talk about it. People feel shame. But it's also, it's really real. I think you have to be really brave to admit to yourself that you're not in love with maybe the person that you're with, and that you are in love with someone else. It's cruel on both sides, and I think you can really hear that. It was a song that I really only felt comfortable enough to make with A. G. He would never judge me for saying these things. It’s another pre-pandemic song, and A. G. was living in a place with a studio in his garage. There was a tree outside that was always covered in crickets. You can hear the crickets in the recording, which I think is really sweet and charming. Once we’d lived with the song for about a year, A. G. had the idea of asking Oneohtrix Point Never to add some things to the song, which I loved.” <b>“Yuck”</b> “I like the drastic gear change here. I like that it makes you laugh. I like those jarring moments on albums and in live shows where you're going from the most intimate, quiet song to the most hilarious or poptastic. That was the reasoning behind putting ‘Every Rule’ and ‘Yuck’ back to back. I really struggle with that feeling of being smothered. It's probably an only-child thing, or something. When you're like, ‘Get away from me, give me some fucking space’—that is seriously how I feel 50% of the time. It also reminds me of that gang vocal element of ‘Boom Clap’ and ‘Boys’. Not sonically, but more in terms of the way that I'm singing. I'm definitely not the most technical singer ever—if you put me next to Ariana Grande and made us both sing the same song, I would sound absolutely insane, and she would sound absolutely gorgeous—but when it comes to singing like this, I feel pretty confident. That’s really nice for me, just in a technical way. It's really fun to be like, ‘Yeah. You know what? I can sing this song.’ Which I know sounds stupid because I am a professional ‘singer’.” <b>“Used to Know Me”</b> “I was trying to emulate myself on ‘Fancy’—or get back into that headspace. I really remember searching for the chorus melody to ‘Fancy’ in a way that I hadn't really searched for a melody before. Normally I'm very instinctual and spontaneous when it comes to melodies, but with ‘Fancy’, I had to really manoeuvre my brain around different corners to figure it out—to understand the formation of the notes. I wrote this on my own at Stargate’s studios, which probably made me feel like I had to write a really big pop song, and then when I was listening to it on repeat in my car, I just started singing the synth line to ‘Show Me Love’ by Robin S. So I called a few people and was like, ‘Is this possible?’ And everyone said, ‘Yes, but do you care about publishing?’ And I was like, ‘I guess not.’ It feels to me like a big song—it’s about reshaping who you are after a breakup.” <b>“Twice”</b> “I had reservations about making this the last song because it's such an obvious choice with the key change and outro. And generally speaking, I'm anti the obvious choice. But then George Daniel, who is very good with tracklisting, simply said, ‘You're an idiot if you don't put this song last.’ It’s actually interesting lyrically, because it's about the end of the world and that you shouldn't think twice about intimate moments, or these off-the-cuff moments. Essentially, YOLO, and enjoy delving into these once-in-a-lifetime situations that everybody ends up in. I was picturing the scene from [Lars von Trier’s 2011 film] <i>Melancholia</i> where Kirsten Dunst’s character is sat on a hill waiting for the end of the world. It’s a perfect closer, and I also think it’s a very beautiful song.”
