Austin – This headline guarantees Charli XCX a spot on a pink card in some future edition of Trivial Pursuit. More immediately, it seems like a looming, hilarious instance of the career-launching/overshadowing single—“Creep” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” come to mind. Before “Boom Clap” and the Icona Pop collaboration “I Love It,” British pop singer Charli XCX might loosely have been called a rising indie artist, at least in terms of scale. Now, she can sell out a pretty spacious venue solely on the strength of “Oh, the ‘Boom Clap’ girl.” I don’t know whether anyone put down the price of a ticket on that basis for her Emo’s show in Austin the other night. In a way, though, they’d be lucky if they did—Charli’s released catalogue and the material she’s played off of Sucker match the quality of “Boom Clap.” Even in her very compressed set, there was a lot to like.
Despite the delayed album release, Charli’s upcoming album Sucker (coming December 16 in the U.S.) has a role on this tour. The band appears in black cheerleader costume with the album title stenciled across the chest in police-cruiser font. It gives a strong 90’s girl power feel, and the Sucker singles she’s been touring back that up. These songs ditch a lot of the electronics in favor of a sound rooted in punk and garage rock, with snarly vocals you’ll recognize from “I Love It.” Title track “Sucker” has some good shout-along qualities, especially with its chorus of “Fuck you, sucker!”
Which, whatever its virtues, doesn’t carry my interest as well as “Break the Rules” and “London Queen.” “Break the Rules” incorporates more synthesizers and turns up the bass. The lyrics—“I don’t wanna’ go to school, I just wanna’ break the rules”—are hand picked for appearing in an episode of Teen Wolf. At the time of this writing I consider this a good thing, but that could change with my mood.
“London Queen” is easily the standout of these, wearing punk on its sleeve more effectively than any of the other songs in this set. It’s not hard to tell where the song is coming from—it’s straight Ramones, with rapid 8th note bass and chord-only guitar that drops out for the breakdowns. “Warm California Sun” seems to be its point of origin, and the chorus is punctuated with an “Oi!” just in case you needed help.
The band found a place, somehow, when the set switched to some of the older material, which leaned much heavier on electronics. Partly, they were aided by backing tracks, and partly it led to some interesting renderings. Gold Panda-produced “You,” a personal favorite going in, was relatively unaffected. The slow beat carries a heavily distorted vocal melody, a barely recognizable “you” that’s repeated with Charli’s contribution as the narrator addresses a “you” that’s “fucked it all up.” “I Love It” was similarly unaltered, and—not surprisingly—a lot better live than it is alone in your car.
“Stay Away” deserves mentioning. It’s got the same formula as a lot of material from True Romance, plus some restraint relative to most of the songs mentioned here. It’s not the only time she backs off the provocation and gets more personal, but it’s especially effective in that regard. “Boom Clap” closed out the set, presumably in the same place it would have gone in the phantom encore, the only real mar on this show.
Charli XCX has a few more dates in October. After breaking for most of November she’ll be back on tour through the spring, by then in support of Sucker, which comes out in December. Both are worth your time.
Will Jukes
Latest posts by Will Jukes (see all)
- Dawes Matures With “All Your Favorite Bands” - June 2, 2015
- Communions Find Balance in New EP - June 2, 2015
- Wolf Alice Takes Austin Back to the 90’s - May 27, 2015
Pingback: ‘Sucker’: It’s Charli XCX ’s World; We Just Live In It - Best New Bands