Charli XCX: Crash [WEA]

Why you'll love it

This edition comes in a gatefold jacket. Crash topped the charts in the UK, Australia and Ireland and gave Charli her first top-ten album in the US.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Every pop star eventually makes the big, glossy major-label record. Charli XCX made hers on purpose and in character, casting herself as a deal-with-the-devil diva she called her "major label sell-out" persona, and borrowing the title and car-wreck imagery from David Cronenberg's 1996 film. Early on, she simply called it the "Janet album."

Gone is most of the hyperpop clatter of her earlier work. In its place come 80s synth-pop, new jack swing, Eurodance and disco, with Janet Jackson as a guiding star. The title track struts over hard funk drums, "Good Ones" glides on synthwave, "Beg for You" with Rina Sawayama flips a Europop classic into UK garage, and "Baby" channels Control-era Janet and Cameo. "Lightning" adds flamenco flourishes to techno-pop, and "Yuck" pairs a 70s funk bassline with disco. Producers include A. G. Cook, Oscar Holter, Ariel Rechtshaid, George Daniel and Oneohtrix Point Never, and for the first time she sang songs written by others.

It became her most commercially successful album until Brat came along. For a record about selling your soul, it has held its value remarkably well.

Also at Kops: more Charli XCX on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Asylum / Atlantic, the 2022 album.