Charli XCX relishes in her bad side with ’Good Ones’

Charli XCX is no stranger to the pop spotlight.

The very foundation of her career was built upon her appearances on chart-topping singles such as Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and the grammy nominated “Fancy” with rapper Iggy Azalea. From the beginning of her formative years, the young U.K.-based singer carried a natural charisma in her performance and had a very obvious knack for crafting memorable pop hooks with mass commercial appeal.

Yet, Charli has never been one to do the expected. Her debut record True Romance showed her leaning in an unexpected direction as she embraced a dark brand of synth-pop that contained artistic substance and was quite experimental for a then blossoming pop starlet. While her debut failed to make a significant mark in the 2013 music sphere, her sophomore effort Sucker that came just one year after earned Charli her own solo hits in the form of “Boom Clap,” “Break the Rules,” and “Doing It.” Though commercially successful, the record represented an identity crisis of sorts as Charli stripped away the style she began cultivating on her debut in favor of a radio-friendly, power-pop direction influenced by alternative rock acts of the 90s and 2000s. For a second it seemed as if Charli was setting her focus on becoming a fully-fledged pop star as she performed at the MTV VMAs, Saturday Night Live, and served as an opener for Katy Perry on the European left of her Prismatic World Tour. Yet unexpectedly, Charli’s career took another drastic turn once she met the UK-based PC Music collective.

Under the creative influence of avant-pop visionaries and producers SOPHIE and A.G. Cook, the latter who would become Charli’s creative director to this very day, Charli scrapped her mainstream appeal altogether in favor of a brash, futuristic EDM direction on her groundbreaking Vroom Vroom EP. The EP, produced by SOPHIE, illustrated a bold reimagining of pop as the world knew it: it was playful, seductive, futuristic, abrasive, yet unmistakably pop as Charli crafted distinct melodies with the rebellious edge present in her past projects. Charli continued to build a name for herself in the experimental pop world with the critically acclaimed mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 that came out just the following year, yet her efforts warranted no monumental success in the mainstream.

Her following third and fourth studio albums Charli and how I’m feeling now solidified Charli as a critical pop darling as she continued to push boundaries with her unique brand of future-pop. As she found her footing stylistically, Charli also honed her songwriting, crafting stronger hooks than ever before while adding a sense of vulnerability to her songwriting that she had never been bold enough to share prior. After creating two consistent records that had proved to be the strongest material in her discography, one begins to wonder: where is Charli to go from that point?

When Charli announced she had begun work on a new musical project, her fifth studio record and her final under contract with Atlantic Records, she described the material as “pop-tastic,” before adopting a new aesthetic of blood, devils, big hair, and posts that cryptically expressed sentiments such as, “Tip for new artists: sell your soul for money and fame” and “Questions I get asked all the time as a popstar: how do I prioritize my art? Don’t.”

“Good Ones” is the first taste of this newly evolved version of Charli, and it comes with a heavy dose of irony. Gone is the distorted bombast and energy of Charli, how I’m feeling now, and Vroom Vroom, and in its place stand repetitive, ear-wormy melodies and pulsing, 80s-tinged synths evocative of the Eurthymics’ iconic “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These).”

“Baby you couldn’t have loved me any better… I want the bad ones cause they’re all I know, I always let the good ones go,” Charli coos on the tracks’ seductive and sweet pre-chorus, cementing the dark direction Charli is developing for her new record while maintaining the rebellious energy present in the vast majority of her discography since Sucker. The refrain signals a dancy instrumental drop as Charli continuously repeats, “I let the good ones go;” it’s inexplicably catchy and shows Charli conforming to the structure of 80s-influenced mainstream pop made popular by her contemporaries such as Dua Lipa and The Weeknd.

As palatable as “Good Ones” is (especially in comparison to the singles from Charli’s past few studio efforts), it is only a short two minutes and seventeen seconds long. The lack of a compelling song structure aids in the track feeling slightly underwhelming and safe, even though Charli’s songwriting is certainly fantastic in order to make a hit of such short duration feel so effective. The focus is put upon Charli in every sense: her vocals are very high in the mix, the lyrics are easily distinguishable, and the instrumental does not try to be as left-field or enthralling as the material from records like Pop 2 and Charli. But with all things considered, Charli succeeded in exactly what she set out to do: make a smash single that has the potential to become a mainstream pop hit.

Charli has entered this self-proclaimed “sell-out” era of her career to prove everyone that has ever doubted her hit-making abilities wrong, all while giving a middle finger to Atlantic Records who never displayed trust in Charli’s art due to what they perceived as inconsistencies in marketability.

The video for “Good Ones” only furthers Charli’s bold statement as she performs choreography with a group of dancers for the very first time in her career, all while adorned in elaborate costumes, glamorous hair, and bold, smoky makeup. “Good Ones” boasts a budget unparalleled by any prior Charli video; it’s almost as if she considered her departure from the major label when conceiving this new era, thus becoming inspired to try to spend as much of their money as she could get away with. Even when Charli chooses to play by mainstream pop standards, all of her creative decisions remain purposeful and calculated, and her familiar defiant and individualistic energy continues to shine through.

While “Good Ones” is far from one of Charli’s strongest tracks both instrumentally and hook-wise, it is a clever pop song that shows promise for the mega-superstar rebirth of Charli XCX that surely is to come.

6/10