8.5/10
Favorite Track: Claws Least Favorite Track: Anthems
For a long time, pop music has been a relatively uninteresting genre to me, not because of the fact that it tends to have too many recycled ideas to it, but for the sole reason that those musical algorithms themselves tend to feel incredibly uninspired and never seem to bring anything new to the table. With that being said, the newest LP from pop music icon, Charli XCX, is not your run-of-the-mill pop record. how i’m feeling now is one of the most innovative displays of pop music I have heard, on account of it’s overblown, glitchy production, the introspective lyrics from Charli, and the overall ability to put together a wall of sound that hits you like a freight train. From the very first track “pink diamond”, it is apparent that the record is much more than bubblegum bass dance meant for the radio, with the visceral, loud production that is almost anxiety inducing, and Charli nearly rapping about how she wants to be “going real hard”. There are multiple cutesy love songs on this project that all are quite tasteful, like the hopeful “forever” and the emotionally confused “enemy”. All of the tracks on this album seem to have a similar overall theme, talking about things that Charli has been bothered by, and it is very apparent that during this quarantine that we have all been heavily affected by, Charli has been doing a lot of reflecting. A lot of the songs on here feel very reminiscent of times with more things to do, with a few songs about being at the club and having fun at parties, and all of these songs seem to have a bit more of a somber tone. Above all of that, one thing seems to be common between all of them, which is that all of the topics and musical ideas brought to the table on this record are substantive, they are all creatively and sonically interesting, which is something I cannot say for the vast majority of Charli’s pop peers. She has managed to put together a musically chaotic, emotionally rich, lyrically substantive pop album that I think exemplifies what the pop genre could have to offer if it wasn’t ruled by the same musical algorithms time and time again.
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