As she releases music from her upcoming soundtrack to Wuthering Heights, we count down the best of her frank, futuristic tracks
Such was the extent of fan involvement in the How I’m Feeling Now album that the title of Claws was decided by online vote. The opposite of the album’s more fraught depictions of lockdown, it celebrates being trapped with someone you love, although the clanking rhythm track adds a vague sense of unease.
According to one fan database, there are 260 unreleased Charli xcx tracks lurking around online. Taxi, from the scrapped album XCX World, remains the most celebrated for a reason: the funny, snotty saga of a midweek blind date gone wildly out of control, it’s a perfect example of Charli and producer Sophie’s skewed approach to pop.
The poppiest track on Brat – nearly binned midway through recording sessions – Apple’s earworm bubblegum melody carries a lyric about strained parental relationships and intergenerational trauma. It also went on to both spawn a viral TikTok dance craze and earn a Grammy nomination. The remix, featuring the Japanese House, feels sweeter still – and equally fantastic.
It’s easy to view Brat’s predecessor, Crash, as Charli xcx trying to fit in with standard ideas about mainstream pop, rather than forging her own distinctive path. But its highlights are pretty high: New Shapes deploys both Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek over a fierce take on 80s electro.
