ALBUM REVIEW: How I’m Feeling Now - Charli XCX
Charli XCX has taken the COVID-19 global circumstances and made it her mission for the first six weeks to be creative. How I’m Feeling Now is an at home DIY style album, Charli using only things that she had with her at home. With the album due in six weeks Charli looked to her fans for inspiration, allowing them opportunities to collaborate with her in the albums process. The fans were encouraged to send beats, artwork, lyrics, anything that they might be willing to part with to be included on the album. Charli used some of these items as inspiration and of course some of the submissions made the final album cut. The album captures Charli’s mood and feelings throughout her time of recording and it is an excellent collection of work.
Starting with some of the stand out tracks, the third single from the album “I Finally Understand” gets at the core of the album. It starts with XCX’s classic digital pop sound, with a catchy hook that could be played in almost any scenario. Within the lyrics of the song, Charli talks about how she thinks her love might lead to her ultimate undoing. It captures the feeling of the current time, of feeling stuck in one place, whether that place is stuck in love or stuck inside.
The track “c2.0” Charli does something really interesting, she “remixes” or rerecords her song “Click”. Originally released in September of 2019 “Click” in its original version featured Kim Petras and Tommy Cash as one of the standout tracks on her album Charli, released in 2019 as well. She takes part of the chorus and effortlessly creates a new hook and adds in additional verses. This pulls back the curtain a bit on the artists process, showcasing that at least for Charli the song process is never finished and she has had different ideas about how to present the final work. I highly encourage listeners to check out both tracks in order to hear how Charli played with her composition.
The album's penultimate track takes the cake for capturing the current sentiment of the world. “Anthems” is not just the name of the song but also something Charli is very familiar with creating. Whether its “Boys” a popular anthem in the gay community or “1999” a call back anthem for all millennials, Charli is a pro. “Anthems” covers boredom at home, highlighting online shopping, netflix, and uncertainty around the situation. The chorus screams the world's collective sentiment:
“I want anthems // Late nights, my friends, New York”
Also leaving us with a little bit of hope and positive sentiment about how we might all make it out of this current situation:
“Finally, when it's over // We might be, even closer”
Charli did it again and created the quarantine anthem, catch me jumping up and down on my bed, rocking out to this one.