User:Bleff/sandboxxcx
| XCX World | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfinished album by | ||||
| Recorded | 2015–2017 | |||
| Genre | Hyperpop | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Charli XCX studio album chronology | ||||
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| Singles from XCX World | ||||
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XCX World is the most common name for an unfinished album by English singer and songwriter Charli XCX, which was originally meant to be released in 2017 as her third studio album following Sucker (2014).
Some of the leaked songs originally recorded for the album eventually received an official release, including the 2018 singles "Girl's Night Out" and "Focus / No Angel", while other tracks like "Bounce" or the fan favorite "Taxi" were definitively shelved.[1]
Songs from XCX World have acquired cult status among Charli XCX fans, and the record has appeared on music critics' lists of notable "lost albums".[2][3]
Background and development
[edit]2014–2016
[edit]
In a December 2014 interview for Time magazine published just days before the release of Sucker, the singer said she was already planning her next album, which would be heavily inspired by Japanese pop music and sound like "another planet up in the clouds" and "intensely weird and childlike".[4]
https://studybreaks.com/culture/sounds/inside-rise-charli-xcx-pop-musics-subversive-star/
https://web.archive.org/web/20211217234418/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/hyperpop/617795/ https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/music/bubblegum-bass-an-introduction-to/ https://walkerart.org/magazine/marvin-lin-expiring-aesthetics-new-music https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2015-03-20/sxsw-live-shot-sophie/
In a 2017 The Guardian article focused on Charli XCX's conflicts with her label, Michael Cragg described Sucker as a "muddled album she's since said she hates that tried to fuse her pent-up creative frustrations with trend-chasing chart fodder ('Break the Rules'), and songs originally rejected by other artists ('Die Tonight' was politely declined by One Direction)."[5]
She told Q: "I made some rash decisions with Sucker, like the song 'Break the Rules'. That was so bad. I hate it. I wrote it at a writing camp for other artists with Benny Blanco and Stargate, and I was like, 'Whoever sings this song is an idiot.' ... Cut to: four months later, it's on my album, and it's my new single. I fucked myself."[6]
Halfway through the Charli and Jack Do America Tour, in which she promoted Sucker and co-headlined with Bleachers, the singer decided to abruptly quit the rest of the shows.
Interviewed by I-D magazine in July 2015, Charli XCX answered "all of PC Music" when asked which artists she liked at the moment, and stated to be working on new music: "I've been working with Sophie on a few things, [she's] incredibly talented. We did a little trip to LA together to hang out and do some writing; I'm really excited about. It's just ideas at the moment, but hopefully people will hear stuff next year."[7]
2016–2017
[edit]In August 2016, Charli XCX appeared on the cover of The Fader magazine, with a feature dedicated to announcing her third studio album, planned for release in 2017.[8]
The artist explained that the new material was jointly produced by Sophie and Stargate:
I didn't want to make just an album with Sophie, and I didn't want to make just an album with Stargate. I wanted to make an album with Sophie and Stargate. Sure, some of Sophie's records are a little harsh and off-the-wall, but the goal is to be making progressive pop music. Stargate obviously come from a totally different world, but at the same time that's also their aim, you know? That xylophone on their old Ne-Yo R&B shit, the way the handclaps were programmed? I know people are going to be like, "She wanted to make the album with Sophie, and her label said, You need to put it with Stargate to make this work." But it was never about putting Sophie in a pop environment and flattening [her] out. It was knowing they could bounce really well, in a room together, working to each other's strengths.[8]
In late October 2016, the singer was interviewed by Zane Lowe for radio Beats 1 and announced that the album would be released in May 2017, although she also said: "I'm sure I'll just get bored and leak the whole thing before then anyway."[9][10]
When I started working with Charli on her albums, I mean that was a really... I guess it's okay to say a kind of difficult moment in her relationship to her label and exactly where she wanted to be in terms of her own music. She'd always been this sort of gifted writer and had had a few hits that were very widely known and even bigger than she was as an artist. And I think her record label was aware of that and pushing her in that direction while also knowing that her albums and her songwriting also included all these other stuff that wasn't purely about radio hits. They were already trying to figure out how to work with an artist who could do something like "Fancy" and then who also wanted to do something like the Vroom Vroom EP; which I didn't really play a big part in but it kinda defined Charli for some people and then made her a contradiction for other people. And when I started working with her and just getting to know her a bit, I think we suddenly saw things in a very similar way. It's been a kind of journey of getting more and more confident and using that slightly problematic relationship between artist and label almost as the ground we do everything off.[11]
In January 2017, the singer gave an interview about the album for Rolling Stone magazine, in which it was specified that it was still untitled and would be released in May of that year.[12]
"It didn't have a title. Everyone else just kind of gave it a title. People made artwork. Yeah, it was never really a fully formed thing. So, that's kind of all the decisions of fans, actually. But yeah, sure, it was called XCX World. Cool."[13]
https://www.thefader.com/2017/05/12/charli-xcx-interview-number-1-angel-new-album/amp
https://ew.com/music/2016/12/22/charli-xcx-new-album-sophie/
2017–2018
[edit]Yeah. I mean, it was cool. I was working on an album, which I loved and still love. I didn't feel like it was my decision to not put it out. The decision was kind of out of my hands, because someone hacked me. So, it just kind of felt like my work got taken from me and it was no longer mine, and that was really sad. I didn't even get to process it much at the time, honestly, because it was just so shocking that it had actually happened. But yeah, I love the songs that are on that album, and it's such a shame that I didn't get to complete it the way that I wanted to.[13]
It's really hard for me to think about. But it was sad, because I was going to release that music, and I had really specific thoughts and ideas of how I would do it. It's just, the second it's been taken from you, it just doesn't even feel like yours anymore. That was really sad, because I'd put so much time into it, and money and love, and so had all the people who were working on it. Yeah, I had shot artwork and was about to shoot videos, and then it just kind of wasn't even mine anymore. So, RIP those days.[13]
Legacy
[edit]
In 2019, NME included XCX World in its list of "Lost albums of the 2010s",[2] while Stereogum included it in its 2021 list of "45 Lost Albums We Want to Hear".[3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Kelly, Robert (2018). "Who Is Really to Blame for the Delay of Charli XCX's Next Album?". Highsnobiety. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ a b Richards, Will (17 October 2019). "Lost albums of the 2010s – what became of the albums we were promised but that never arrived?". NME. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ a b Leas, Ryan (20 April 2021). "45 Lost Albums We Want To Hear". Stereogum. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ Feeney, Nolan (4 December 2014). "Riot Girl: Charli XCX Rages Against the Pop-Music Machine on Sucker". Time. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Cragg, Michael (14 March 2017). "Charli XCX: the mixtape mystery and a pop career in flux". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Deville, Chris (23 January 2017). "Will.i.am's Advice For Charli XCX's New Album: "Just Say Random Words. Nobody Listens To The Verse."". Stereogum. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Mahanty, Shannon (8 July 2015). "seven minutes with charli xcx". I-D. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ a b Cooper, Duncan (August 2016). "Shame Less". The Fader. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ Levine, Nick (31 October 2016). "Charli XCX says she might leak her new album if she gets bored". NME. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Day, Laurence (31 October 2016). "Charli XCX has a release date for her new album". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Nahuel Stoppa, author; Stefanie Reichel, editor (20 December 2020). How PC Music defined a new kind of pop (Interview A. G. Cook, SOPHIE, Charli XCX) (YouTube video). Germany: TRACKS. Arte. Event occurs at 08:50. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ Spanos, Brittany (9 January 2017). "Charli XCX on Making Album She Could 'Get F--ked Up To'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ a b c Maicki, Salvatore (19 September 2019). "Charli XCX is making space for the pop music we deserve". The Fader. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
