Albums to watch

Crash

Charli XCX

Crash

Fifth studio album from the English electro popstar includes contributions from Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek

ADM rating[?]

7.6

Label
Atlantic
UK Release date
18/03/2022
US Release date
18/03/2022
  1. 10.0 |   Dork

    Tight, focused and moving with dangerous intent, ‘Crash’ is Charli XCX’s main character moment
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  2. 10.0 |   Gigwise

    Charli doesn't need to be avant-garde to be iconic
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  3. 10.0 |   The Independent

    Charli XCX sounds like a woman loving life at the wheel of these 12 luxury pop vehicles
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  4. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Going back to basics for her fifth album was something which few envisaged, but the decision makes perfect sense – Crash is nothing short of a victory lap
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  5. 9.0 |   DIY

    An album that cements her status as a true pop trailblazer
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  6. 8.0 |   NME

    The star marks the beginning of a more experimental chapter – but on the way out of major label life, she puts her own spin on mainstream pop
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  7. 8.0 |   The Arts Desk

    The subject matter throughout is love and sex, infidelity and longing
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  8. 8.0 |   Vinyl Chapters

    It’s her commitment to talking about the good, the bad and the ugly which makes the album so appealing
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  9. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    Occupies a completely different space with joyous music that flits between normativity and hall-of-mirrors-style subversion
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  10. 8.0 |   Pitchfork

    Charli’s best full-length project since Pop 2 is a canny embrace of modern and vintage pop styles by one of its most sincere students
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  11. 7.5 |   Under The Radar

    Crash, while certainly not for everyone (what is?), is Charli XCX’s own translation of wounds—ahead of its time yet delivered somehow at the appropriate moment
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  12. 7.5 |   Beats Per Minute

    Crash is a pop album with more than ample zeal, and Charli’s hitting a groove that feels natural to her. Despite its minor detours, Crash is one of Charli’s better albums
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  13. 7.2 |   Paste Magazine

    The popstar's latest album is not her lowest point, but it is her first misstep
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  14. 7.0 |   Crack

    Strangely, for a so-called sellout album – is unlikely to draw in any newcomers to the XCX world. For fans who enjoy the whiplash uncertainty of the Charli experience, however, there’s a lot of face value fun to be had
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  15. 7.0 |   Clash

    ‘CRASH’ is certainly a mixed bag, but it does demonstrate that, whatever her motivations and mindset, Charli XCX is an artist we should treasure
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  16. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Charli XCX’s Crash finds the pop singer workshopping the reckless abandon of her persona
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  17. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    The ‘”anti-pop star”delivers mega-bops that don’t dilute her art-school eccentricities
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  18. 7.0 |   Exclaim

    It's the kind of brash, whiplash-inducing pop album that only she seems capable of making at the moment. It's a bit messy, but most crashes are
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  19. 6.4 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    I don't mind an artist exploring different fields after they master a style, which she certainly did. Let's just hope next time it lands as well as she hopes this will
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  20. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    Torn between chart success and the pop vanguard, the artist self-consciously set out to make a ‘major label album’ – but it’s full of mixed messaging
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  21. 6.0 |   Evening Standard

    The style is big on catchiness but dilutes much of her spiky personality. And if she’s going to sound more like everyone else, it’s easy to side with the less adoring side of her following and wonder what the point is
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  22. 6.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    Charli embraces a festive dance-pop, with varied textures pulled from the ‘70s all the way to the explosion of electronic currents in the late 2000s
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  23. 5.8 |   A.V. Club

    After years of being the face of experimental pop, Charli plays into conventionality on her new album
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