Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now ALBUM REVIEW

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Charli XCX has been popping up on my radar for a while now, and she’s always been a quiet yet powerful voice in music. Charli doesn’t have as big of a fan base of, say, BTS or Ariana Grande, but Charli’s fanbase is one of the vigorous out there. Her breakout single “Boom Clap” from the Fault in Our Stars was how many people first saw her, and while it wasn’t the best song on the planet, it was catchy as hell. Every now and then, that song still gets stuck in my head. As she’s dropped off of mainstream attention, she’s dropped some of the most addictive pop albums of the 2010s. I’d even go as far as to say that her last album, 2019’s Charli, is one of the best pop records of the decade. Not even a year after Charli, she’s made a ‘do-it-yourself’ album titled how i’m feeling now, a grand pop experiment that was made entirely in her home studio in a span of six weeks during this COVID-19 pandemic that we’re in now. So, does how i’m feeling now succeed in its DIY nature? Surprisingly, it blew me away.

how i’m feeling now is a bubblegum bass record, mixing sounds from pop, EDM, and UK drill music. Conceptually, this record is a reaction to how the Coronavirus is affecting modern life, and this could have been a lot more disheveled. However, the amount of experimentation and creativity in this record cannot be understated. Personally, my favorite track is “anthem,” an absolute banger of a song that (almost) caps off the album. There really isn’t a horrible track off of how i’m feeling now, but the electronic feel can wear down at times. It feels like a fresh sound, even though this is a sound that has been done many times before, by Charli herself no less.

The only complaint that I have from this album is that it feels very raw compared to some of her past albums, Charli in particular. Charli succeeded in the fact that it was ambitious with everything from its sound, to its features, and everything in between. And somehow, it worked. Of course, there are reasons why this isn’t as pristine as it is, but then again, that’s why it’s so impressive. how i’m feeling now was made within two months, and some different acts struggle to make an album or sometimes two in a year. how i’m feeling now is proof that Charli XCX is a forced to be reckoned with in the music world.

how i’m feeling now’s raw and rushed aesthetic perfectly resonates with the struggling times that we are in right now. Anxiety, depression, peace, and love during these times are at an all-time high, and when this pandemic is in the history books, music fans will look back on Charli XCX’s how i’m feeling now as a touchstone in music. Charli has caught lightning in a bottle.


9/10


Stream how i’m feeling now here

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