Music / CRASH (Album)

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CRASH is the fifth studio album by Charli XCX, released in March 2022 by Atlantic Records and Asylum, being the final record as part of her initial record deal with the former.

Following the eventual release of her long-awaited third album, Charli, in 2019, Charli announced initial plans for the following year that she would be releasing two new albums between 2020-2021. However, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, plans were changed significantly, with recording sessions being cancelled, instead leading to the DIY-inspired how i'm feeling now in 2020. During this time — in which Charli was regularly engaging with fans and discussing ideas to involve their participation in the making of how i'm feeling now — Charli additionally discussed plans on producing what she was tentatively dubbing "the Janet album," a "poptastic" project she would work on much more in the long term. After steady teases of new songs in the following months — including the lead single "Good Ones" in September 2021 — CRASH was officially announced for release the following year, accompanied by three additional singles and a world tour.

Unlike Charli's much more experimental hyperpop-inspired work since 2016's Vroom Vroom, CRASH is a much more conventional dance/synth pop record influenced by the sounds from the 80's and 90's (including that of Janet Jackson), as well as by Charli's own more traditional pop records early on like 2013's True Romance and 2014's Sucker. By Charli's own admission, this was largely the result of a personal artistic experiment — CRASH was set to be her final record with Atlantic as part of their record deal in 2010, and given her reputation as working within the experimental fringes of the mainstream, she sought to use the opportunity to play the mainstream music industry's game in what was seemingly her last chance to make the most maximist, commercially viable record she could, freely describing it to be her "major label Sell-Out record" and her "evil era." In addition to hypersexualizing herself, she performed songs written and composed by other people and used an A&R executive for the first time in her career. Production-wise, CRASH strayed away with Charli's now-usual collaborators within the experimental PC Music camp and consists almost entirely of new blood, with names like Lotus IV, Oscar Holter, Digital Farm Animals, and Ariel Rechtshaid taking up credits.

Not to be confused with the 1973 J. G. Ballard novel and 1996 David Cronenberg film (from which the album gets its name and aesthetic), nor is it to be confused with the 2004 crime film or the 2023 machinima series.

Tracklist:

1. "Crash" (2:09)
2. "New Shapes" (featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek) (3:20)
3. "Good Ones" (2:16)
4. "Constant Repeat" (3:09)
5. "Beg for You" (featuring Rina Sawayama) (2:48)
6. "Move Me" (2:27)
7. "Baby" (2:39)
8. "Lightning" (3:57)
9. "Every Rule" (3:03)
10. "Yuck" (2:18)
11. "Used to Know Me" (2:25)
12. "Twice" (3:14)
13. "Selfish Girl" (Bonus Track) (3:14)
14. "How Can I Not Know What I Need Right Now" (Bonus Track) (2:37)
15. "Sorry If I Hurt You" (Bonus Track) (2:41)
16. "What You Think About Me" (Bonus Track) (3:04)

Tropes:

• Death by Music Video: She attends her own funeral in the "Good Ones" video, and she collapses at the end.
• Fan Disservice: Normally appearing on the cover of an album wearing only a bikini would make for straightforward Sexy Packaging, but the actual photo being shot is a Shout-Out to Crash, depicting her as looking like she's just been hit by a car. The deluxe edition cover and various alternate covers are even worse because Charli is far more bloodied in all of them.
• Genre Throwback: In stark contrast to her now-signature hyperpop sound of the future, CRASH consists of tracks greatly inspired by more traditional genre sounds from the '80s and '90s, with Charli citing Janet Jackson as one particular major influence. The Title Track is effectively Charli's take on New Jack Swing, "New Shapes" a mixture of '80s Synth-Pop and Indie Pop, "Yuck" an invocation of classic funk and disco, etc.
• New Sound Album: CRASH is much more of a "poptastic" throwback record, eschewing the avant-garde, hyperpop sounds of the future for the vintage, 80's Synth-Pop-inspired sounds of the past.
• Revisiting the Roots: How Charli describes👁 Image
  CRASH — on top of being a traditional Genre Throwback after a long string hyperpop projects — as being a case of this for herself. As it was her final record as part of her deal with Atlantic Records, Charli admits to approaching it as one last opportunity to utilize the label's maximist resources and create a more commercial-friendly pop album akin to when she first started out; an experiment to see if it can achieve mainstream attention that eluded her as someone who usually works on the experimental fringe of pop (this venture would be a successful one, as it became her most commercially successful album to date, and ironically kept her and Atlantic on good-enough terms for her to renew her contract for BRAT).
• Sampling: "Beg for You" samples "Cry for You" by September.
• Shout-Out: The title CRASH and its cover is a reference to the David Cronenberg film Crash.
• Singer Namedrop: The coda of "New Shapes" has a backing voice muttering "Charli, Caroline, Chris" (including the track's two featured artists, Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens).