One optimistic thing to say about hard times is that at least we should get some good art out of them. Here, then, is Charli XCX’s Guernica — an 11-song album made in isolation from scratch after she announced it on April 6.
As lockdown creative projects go, a sourdough loaf is beyond most of us, so it’s remarkable that this prolific artist has met her deadline with music that never feels sketched.
It has also been fascinating to follow her progress on social media. Fans have helped her with lyric-writing, made green-screen backgrounds for videos and offered opinions on demos.
The circumstances mean that she never sounds like she’s gunning for pop hits, as she did sometimes on her third album in the different universe of eight months ago.
Her voice throughout is alien with heavy Auto-Tune effects. Forever, though melodic, is scraped with electronic distortion underneath. Co-producing with Bon Iver member BJ Burton and A. G. Cook of PC Music, she often employs a disorientating mix of the strange and the sugary.
Lyrically, there’s virus-related frustration. Pink Diamond sees her longing to be dolled up and back on any dancefloor. On C2.0, nostalgic memories flutter by. But mostly, this is an album about love. Quarantined with a boyfriend who previously lived far away, she’s finding the relationship is working out. That’s a theme that will resonate long after this situation is behind us.
