Charli XCX’s Two New Singles Prove She’s A Pop Heavyweight
Charli XCX refuses to slow down.
Some Friday’s are an absolute onslaught of new music. Between new albums from both Drake and Florence + The Machine, today is truly a blessing — but we’re here to make sure you don’t sleep on Charli XCX, who just released two excellent singles.
In between supporting Taylor Swift on her worldwide tour (and taking Melbourne act Banoffee along for the ride), Charli XCX has been releasing a steady stream of music all year.
‘Focus’ and ‘No Angel’ are the latest. Despite the pairing, the two tracks sound split across Charli’s different eras.
‘Focus’ is a PC Music-styled banger more in line with her gleefully saccharine Pop 2 mixtape from last year. That makes sense, since it was co-produced by Jack & Coke and A.G. Cook, the latter of who helped write Pop 2 in a few weeks last September.
On the other side, ‘No Angel’ is something of a throwback to her first two albums, where Charli was more interested in making shiny, pristine pop. Again, that makes sense — for this one, she sought the production of SOPHIE and Invisible Men, the latter of who worked on ‘Fancy’, her 2014 hit with everyone’s favourite Mullumbimby rapper Iggy Azalea.
The somewhat erratic combination is a reminder that Charli XCX doesn’t do slow-and-steady, though that’s been the case for a while.
In 2016, she released an explosive EP called Vroom Vroom — ever since she’s been running hot, releasing new music in a flurry. Last year, she released two mixtapes, No. 1 Angel Baby and the excellent Pop 2, in addition to several standalone singles, such as the internet-halting ‘Boys’.
This year, she’s popped up on Rita Ora’s much-discussed ‘Girls’ (alongside Cardi B and Bebe Rexha) as well as Tove Lo’s overlooked ‘Bitches’ (with ALMA, Icona Pop and Elliphant). Just yesterday, she released a music video for ‘5 In The Morning’, a trap-jam for when the party won’t end.
And it doesn’t look like it will anytime soon — recently, Charli promised she was going pedal-to-the-metal this year with releases. “You’re gonna be so fucking sick of me,” she wrote, but we have a feeling she’s wrong.
Listen to ‘Focus’ and ‘No Angel’ below.