Related Recs

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von dutch by charli xcx in a club

New York‘s newest favorite DJ, The Dare, played the British hyperpop princess’ latest track during his set at Silencio this week. And you know what, the crowd went absolutely feral — like, we were ALL truly having the absolute time of our lives. Von Dutch, cult classic in our eardrums indeed.

@notanusha

Mar 4, 2024

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charli Xcx - True Romance Revisited

Every time she begins a new era I have so much fun going back to Charli’s debut. It STILL HITS. Some general thoughts: 1) Nuclear Seasons…summah lovin in the back seat gon! 2) Stay Away - wild that this was one of her early singles. So dark and moody. The way she ennunciates “ech-oh” and “ah-rrrow” 🫨 3) Cloud Aura with Brooke Candy - an iconic early flop, which I think she learned a lot from and rarely missed after this with her features 4) What I Like - my favorite. The “ahhh” vocal fries, she really walked so the girls of the 2020s could run! What moments do ya’ll love? And are you loving von dutch?

@jf

Feb 29, 2024

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Once more 'brat'

I just need a place to spill my thoughts. About the Best Pop Album of the Year(so far) I've listened to the album a couple more times, and it just keeps getting better. Charli XCX has attempted several times to fully return to her pop persona: first with the ambitious "Charli", then the wayward "Crash". In the former, she tried to retain her hyperpop identity while sounding commercially appealing (which went well), and in the latter, she gambled on simplicity and nostalgia for pop music from different eras (which did not go as well). "BRAT" is interesting because it lacks both futuristic hyperpop and gloss, but it does have that Charli XCX that some have probably missed for about 10 years. Don’t get me wrong, the "vroom-vroom-n1a-pop 2-charli-hifn" streak I still consider the most powerful in modern pop music—but there's a segment of the audience that knows Charli only from "Boom Clap" and "I Love It". I had never thought about it, but it's "SUCKER" that actually represents Charli—because if that iconic encounter with PC Music and SOPHIE had never happened, Charlotte's music would have sounded quite different. I suppose somewhat like "BRAT". The heavy rolls of synths in "Sympathy is a Knife", the electroclash buzz in "Girl, so Confusing", the cosmic French house in "B2B", and the acid drop in "365" deliberately take the listener back about ten years, to when the grass was greener, and pop stars released COOL music. The album even has a very successful attempt to replicate the formula of "I Love It"—that track is "Mean Girls", one of the most powerful from the release. Charli asserts that "BRAT" is her favorite album, and this is one case where I'm ready to take the artist at her word. It’s entirely possible that she could have released such an album back in the mid-2010s—because here we have in full glory the crazy and somewhat ridiculous lady, retaining all the audacity and indifference that initially made people love her. Amid all the genre diversity and fun, there's a thoughtful production by George Daniel, A.G. Cook, Gesaffelstein, and Hudson Mohawke—the album rocks and is rich in emotions, only occasionally interrupted by depressive revelations. Charli reminisces about her late friend SOPHIE and regrets what's lost, and toward the end of the album even dedicates a whole track to potential motherhood: "I constantly think that I’m wasting time, but what if I have a child—would it give my life meaning?". Against the backdrop of Taylor Swift’s kilometers-long dull poems (who, by the way, Charli disses on the album), such honest lyrics become a breath of fresh air. We cry a little, talk about important things, and continue to dance. And then one must recall that "BRAT" is essentially a club album. You can’t just move to "Von Dutch" and "Club Classics"—you need to jump and rave. But here, perhaps, lies the main drawback of the album—the strange track order, as well as about three lyrical digressions, spoil the overall picture of the forty-minute party. The situation should be rectified by a remix album, which will bring this Charli era to a logical conclusion—if you don’t believe me, just check out her explosive set at Boiler Room. Ariana Grande releases neat pop-R&B, Billie Eilish and Finneas make music for critics, Taylor Swift tortures fans with folk ballads, and Dua Lipa… what was that even? Charli bursts into this whole pop paradigm with force, releases her most successful album in years, makes everyone set provocative green squares with brief text as their profile picture, and brings so much energy to the scene, more than any other pop album this year. And I’m totally satisfied with that arrangement: both as a fan and as an unbiased listener. I've got this huge text about Billie Eilish's and Dua Lipa's albums that I need to finish, but I'm feeling too lazy right now. Maybe I'll tackle it tomorrow.

@nebraska

Jun 10, 2024

Top Recs from @bulkyheadphones

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gregg araki’s ‘the doom generation’

cartoonishly gory and melodramatic it may be, i have found a lot of catharsis in living vicariously through araki‘s articulation of queer angst, and how life in rural america can literally feel like stepping into hell itself; if you like irreverent protagonists and seeing bodily harm done to nazis, it’s a must ^_^

@bulkyheadphones

Aug 1, 2024

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aphex twin — ‘drukqs’

depending on the day of the week, (usually a random wednesday on which i feel the more ravenously coveted releases of SAW vol. 1&2 can be overlong and at times unwieldy), drukqs is to me the most evocative distillation of aphex’s predilection for acid-break brutalizations and madcap sonic textures. it is, somehow, one of the albums i return to most and yet one of the last i’d ever recommend to a sane individual — and ironically, one of the worst to listen to while stoned. i can’t vouch for it enough

@bulkyheadphones

Oct 2, 2024

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doing it again — every day

so far, turning 24 has brought with it the sobering realization that my life won’t simply happen to me, and all the boring, healthy, ritualistic sh*t—once seeming like baseless naïveté spouted unanimously by people who had this epiphany far sooner than i—actually works. so far, 24 has been about catching up to the me that i wanted to be by now, and giving myself grace for keeping her waiting. that baboon from bojack horseman might’ve been onto something. it does get a little easier, on the condition that you keep trying. i’m gonna go make some tea

@bulkyheadphones

Oct 1, 2024