Charli XCX: True Romance

It’s easy to see why the release of True Romance, the major label debut of 20-year-old indietronica prodigy and serial Hot For 2013 featuree Charli XCX, was delayed by an entire year. A fiercely addictive, if a little mystifying, fusion of every imaginable genre under the sun, from hip-hop to pop to R&B to disco to house to new wave to grime, the highly ambitious LP has the makings of a dozen or more musical projects; I can’t even begin to imagine the headache of trying to finalise a tracklist when each individual song is home to a handful of clashing sounds and personalities.

The heavily digitized ‘Take My Hand’, for example, begins with Kylie Minogue-level bubblegum and ends in Imogen Heap-style layered electronics, taking detours in sultry talk-singing and Ibiza-brand dance breakdowns along the way. Parts of the dreamy, white noise-drenched ‘Grins’ could be a Grimes B-Side (possibly featuring lethargic teen rapper Kitty Pryde), while the hook is straight-up ‘90s girl group (Sugababes-via-All Saints).
Potty-mouthed California rapper Brooke Candy brings cool-headed groove to the otherwise industrially jarring ‘Could Aura’, while ‘So Far Away’ finds Charli playing both roles in a shimmering noughties-style R&B duet, lamenting a failed romance in an earnest pseudo rap, and carrying the vintage-sounding melody in an Aaliyah-aping whisper.
Elsewhere, built on a sample of Gold Panda’s ‘You’, the mischievous ‘You (Ha Ha Ha)’ marries cutting-edge indie references to schoolyard lyrics like, “We used to be the cold kids /You were old school, I was on the new shit.”
Despite resembling the musical equivalent of those days when you just can’t figure out what to wear, True Romance has plenty to offer the open-minded party girl or boy. Combining the best elements of her electronically-inclined contemporaries, namely Marina & The Diamonds, Lana Del Rey and Sky Ferriera, Charli XCX is a likable and often fascinating frontwoman, albeit one with her fingers in too many pies.

Key Track: ‘So Far Away’