REVIEW: Charli XCX – ‘Sucker’

It’s early 2013, and things aren’t looking especially great for Charlotte Emma Atchinson, better known as Charli XCX. Her debut album True Romance (which had already been delayed by a full year) crashed at #85 in the UK Album Chart. Despite the album receiving positive reviews from NME to Pitchfork, building a modest fanbase and becoming a poster girl for post-punk/indie Tumblr girls everywhere, her future didn’t exactly look promising.

Then ‘I Love It’ happened.

Originally written by Charli and released by Swedish synthpop trio Icona Pop in 2012, the song was re-released in the UK and stormed into the UK #1 spot in summer 2013. The following year, Charli co-wrote and featured on Iggy Azalea’s single ‘Fancy’, which went to #1 in America, closely followed by her comeback solo single, ‘Boom Clap’, the soundtrack to ‘The Fault In Our Stars‘. The song gave Charli her first solo top 10 hit both in the UK and in America. It was official: Charli XCX had arrived.

Enter Sucker, Charli’s second major label studio album. Released December 2014 in America and February on our shores, it signaled a change in direction for the sassy songstress. Gone were the woozy backdrops and dark, brooding, goth-pop tinges, and in their place, bold, brash, bratty confidence and a hell of a lot of shouting. Fans began to get up in arms, accusing XCX of abandoning her roots and her original fanbase in lieu of international success. Charli insisted that this wasn’t the case, saying that ‘the best artists are the ones who constantly change.’ In an interview with Popsugar, she said, “For me, I never want to do the same thing twice with anything that I do, particularly with my music. So after my first record came out, I wanted to challenge myself and my audience and push it in a different direction.” It was definitely a ballsy decision, especially as her label were insisting on her to write more songs like ‘I Love It’ to continue her success (in which she flew to Sweden and recorded a punk album in protest), but was it one that would pay off for her?

The title track certainly kicks off the album in style, boasting an utterly bombastic, anthemic bassline underneath Charli’s triumphant vocals. ‘Fuck you, suckeeeeer!’ she bellows over the relentless, punchy beats, firmly sticking a finger up in the air at those accusing her of selling out. Her second UK single ‘Break The Rules’ continues the madness, the rumbling guitars and heavy synths encompassing the rebellious nature and playful lyrics, blissfully recalling Blurs ‘Girls & Boys’ with a punk twist.

Charli’s influences are clear throughout the album:  ‘London Queen’ channels Blondie with it’s urgent, happy-go-lucky pace and the grungy guitars as Charli takes us on a journey through her travels in Hollywood – ‘When I’m driving on the wrong side of the road / I feel like JFK!’ whilst ‘Breaking Up’ is well and truly an anthem for vengeful teenage cheerleaders everywhere – ‘You had an ugly tattoo / And fucking cheap perfume’, she jeers at a lover clearly not appreciating the finer traits of her personality. ‘Body Of My Own’ is a cleverly disguised as a harmless 90’s bubblegum pop bop with a riff that sounds like it’s been nicked directly from a Street Fighter game, but a closer look at the lyrics – ‘I don’t need you / My touch is much better’ – reveals Charli’s true intentions, and she’s pulling no punches.

The pace of the album rarely slows, keeping the tempo high throughout, but she also succeeds when she takes things down a notch. ‘Die Tonight’ is a touching, ‘lighters up’ ode to her friends and fans – ‘I could die tonight / ‘Cause I got the magic in my veins’ – and first single ‘Boom Clap’ is a delicious slice of feel-good dreamy pop, boasting a beautiful, restrained vocal from Charli before she unleashes the attitude-packed chorus. ‘So Over You’, a last minute addition to the UK album, reveals her vulnerable side…that is, until she gets to the chorus – ‘I’m so over you / Tell me baby, are you over me?’ she screeches over a wall of starry synths, just how we like to hear her.

And when it’s all said and done, one thing no one can deny about Charli – after all, she was voted Hitmaker Of The Year at last year’s Billboard Music Awards – is her knack for a killer pop hook. ‘Doing It’ features not only Rita Ora, but an infectious, earworm chorus that burrows into your brain and refuses to leave, whilst ‘Famous’ is a fabulously frivolous masterpiece, with a fantastic hook, strutting guitars and joyous playground whistles, building up to a fist-pumping chorus – ‘We act so shameless / Just like we’re famous’.

By all means, Sucker isn’t perfect – ‘Caught In The Middle’ fails to make any sort of impression, and ‘Red Balloon’ is Charli’s ghastly attempt at dance music, and it doesn’t work, not even nearly – and some of her best pieces that were floating around during the recording process are nowhere to be found (would it have killed her to include ‘SuperLove’ and ‘Allergic To Love’ on the album?), but overall, Charli has succeeded in forging her own unique sound for this album. It certainly doesn’t have the eerie magic and dark synthpop bliss of True Romance, but did she do what she came in to do – create a record for girls to feel self-empowerment? Did she take the best of her influences and fuse them into a truly great album? Did she put an innovative punk twist on what could’ve easily been by-the-numbers bubblegum pop? Yes. Yes she did.

And as she says to her accusations of selling out, fuck you. SUCKER!