This album has had some good reviews, and some bad reviews and I hate to say it but I agree with both of them…
I’m very much in the middle with the fact that I really enjoy some of her songs on the album, however I can quite gladly skip some altogether.
I became a fan of a few of her songs when I heard ‘Boom Clap’. I was instantly interested in what else she had released and written. This is when I came across her album True Romance (released 2013), I must say I wasn’t overly keen on that one, mostly because it didn’t sound as if she had quite found her feet with how she wanted to sound. However, she has since released (this year) her album Sucker and I heard more of the Charli XCX that I liked.
I first came across her when I watched the film adaptation of John Green’s Fault in Our Stars, she fitted very well with the film and the other artists who were featured. After I found out she had released it I decided to listen to the album as much as I could, I was hooked.
I’m not going to go through the whole album song by song, as I find that to be too long and you wouldn’t finish it as it would just be me droning on for a few hundred words… so here’s a little round up of the album, featuring some of my favourites and some that just need to be skipped…
It starts with the title track Sucker – for the first song you’d expect a good strong start, however I was slightly put off by this one as it is explicit and contains a fair few strong words that don’t really suit the song…
Break the Rules I can see being a favourite among the masses, especially in clubs because of it’s beat, (also great for walking or running!). I especially like the use of (what sounds like) a megaphone. It’s a great thing to do to set apart your single from the rest of the competition.
London Queen was featured in my last playlist; it was a collaboration with her producer Justin Raisen, Charli liked the song so much when she heard it she said “f*** me! It’s like it was written about me…!” It’s one of my favourites of the album because it’s a corker of a song! (Listen to it and I hope you’ll agree)
Next up is Breaking Up (it’s not great, she needed to stop whining and ‘break up’ with the song…)
Then we go on to Gold Coins, quickly followed by my favourite song on the album, I’ve mentioned it before… Boom Clap. It’s just a crowd pleaser, and is definitely the song that got Charli into the charts.
The next song is Doing It featuring Rita Ora, it’s the most different song compared to them all. It’s clear that Ora had an influence on the song, it’s got to be one of her best-written songs that seems to have a nice beat, and moral to the song; ‘just keep doing it like you’re doing it’. Be yourself and no one else – it’s something everyone should live by.
That is followed by Body of My Own, Famous, Hanging Around and So Over You – all have great beats and are fun to listen to but are starting to get a little bit samey…
Okay, four left to go… This is where I got a little bored of the album, you’ve had the good’uns and now you’re left with the crowd pleasers and the extra songs that are mandatory for a full studio album (incidentally that’s 15 songs, I think for a second album it’s a little but much…).
Die Tonight, Caught in the Middle and Need Ur Love are very similar indeed, you can tell you’re getting to the end of the album because the songs have started to get slower and aren’t as jumpy as at the beginning of the album.
The last track Red Balloon is a bonus track and it’s just what the album needed, and I think putting it right at the end actually did it some good, it needed that oomph to just finish it off nicely.
All in all though, I think the album – as any – had some strengths and some weaknesses, and I quite enjoy most of it, perhaps you’ll be seeing Charli XCX featured on more of my playlists soon…
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Lucy.
Elle Hache 