Time for a sweet surprise.
Goth-pop Tumblrwave princess Charli XCX, who put out one of our favorite albums of 2013 so far, is heading out on a North American tour in May with Queen Marina + The Diamonds, who put out one of our favorite albums of 2012. Evidently, they’ve been spending some time with each other in the recording studio—and the kitchen, it seems.
Today, the twosome whipped up a collaboration: “Just Desserts” — a previously leaked Marina demo called “The Other Foot,” now reworked with Charli as a vengeful slice of blood, guts and chocolate cake.
We’ve spent many a Nuclear Seasons hoping, wishing and waiting for British goth-pop princess Charli XCX to release her long, long awaited debut. It was So Far Away, and now, it’s finally arrived: True Romance — one of the best pop releases of 2013 (so far). (Miss the review last week? Check it out now.)
Now, to celebrate the release…
Charli XCX is one of the few Internet-born, blog-approved acts worthy of the hype.
The buzz began long ago, way back—back to the glory days when MySpace was still (mostly) a thing, and artists like Lily Allen were leading the charge of the self-made, DIY pop star.
At the time, she was billed as a precocious London-bred club kid putting out glitchy, lo-fi electro tunes like “Emelline,” “I Wanna Be Darth Vader” and “Art Bitch” at no more than 16 years old. The tracks were hugely promising—especially for such a young artist—and made their way into the ears of tastemakers and artsy scenesters by the end of 2008. (In fact, while I was interning at Interview in the summer of ’09, I remember the editors curating an an upcoming feature on London’s up-and-coming ladies of Brit-pop, including La Roux, Little Boots and…Charli XCX.)
But the pieces only truly started to come together in 2010, when Charli entered the studio with one of the most exciting producers happening right now, Ariel Rechtshaid. (See also: Sky Ferreira‘s “Everything is Embarrassing” and Usher‘s “Climax.”) Together, the two began refining what we know today as the Charli XCX sound across a series of singles and mixtapes, including Heartbreaks and Earthquakes and Super Ultra: Dooming beats, dreamy New Wave pop melodies, warbling vocoders and blood-soaked lyricism.
Charli XCX is riding high on that future sound.
Earlier today, the genre-bending LDN alt-pop princess unveiled the fantastic new video for her trippy, Gold Panda-sampling new single: “You (Ha Ha Ha).”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: A time when the promise of next year’s music still shines bright like a diamond, free of the crippling reality of weak lead singles, terrible cover art and devastating chart positions.
(Remember how excited we all were for The Spirit Indestructible this time last year? Eesh.)
There’s plenty of major albums coming our way in 2013 by both up-and-comers and veterans alike, so as I do yearly, I’ve put together a guide to some of the most titillating releases just on the horizon. This is the first installment–watch for the next round-up tomorrow.
I’ll be anticipating…
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