Rebecca Nicholson 

Charli XCX: True Romance – review

Charli XCX has spent four years working up to her debut album, and it was worth the wait, writes Rebecca Nicholson
  
  

Charli XCX portrait
Surprisingly oddball … Charli XCX. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian

London's Charlotte Aitchison is just 20, but she's already got four years of banging away at pop's door under her belt. By not rushing out an album until now, however, she seems to have found the time to iron out the creases that made her seem like one of a dozen similar acts. True Romance is surprisingly oddball and packed with production quirks that often resemble a smoothed-off Grimes; You (Ha Ha Ha) and Grins harness samples inventively and playfully. The standout Cloud Aura is an updated Let Me Blow Ya Mind, with LA rapper Brooke Candy taking the Eve role to Charli's Gwen Stefani, and while there's still the odd remnant of Marina-lite pop, this sounds like an imminent star steadily staking a claim to her own turf.

 

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