This is the future of pop, whether you welcome it or not
Charli XCX Brixton Academy
Ihave seen the future of pop. Apparently. “I’m ahead of my time!” Charli XCX brazenly declared at London’s Brixton Academy before adding a qualification that only those in the room actually knew that. Five thousand young women and mostly gay men roared with delight at her acknowledgement of their good taste.
Maverick British singer, songwriter and producer Charlotte Aitchison has evidently been reading her own publicity, which frequently speculates on why she isn’t a household name after a decade of brash, adventurous, progressive pop craft. This was the biggest solo show of a career that has seen 27-year-old Aitchison write and perform on global hits for other artists
(I Love It for Icona Pop, Fancy for Iggy Azalea) while only sporadically cracking the hit parade herself.
Apart from a crowd-pleasing duet on recent single Gone with Héloïse Letissier of Christine and the Queens, there was no sense of collaboration. This was literally a one-woman show. There were no musicians and no dancers. Just backing tracks, lights, lasers, lots of dry ice and Charli herself, bouncing around the stage in a blur of motion.
She danced like a kid’s cartoon character in a fake fight, all speedy punches and kicks, and hectored the audience with the fierceness of an aerobics instructor who is only making you sweat for your own good. She sang with a mannered aggression that made even tortured ballads like Cross You
Out sound like calls to arms.
To be fair, she really can sing, shifting from a punchy mid-range to a spine-tingling falsetto with ease, and blending between breathily live and spacey autotuned vocals with consummate skill.
This is a good thing, because it was the only live musical element of the entire show which was essentially what used to be called a public appearance scaled up to concert levels. This is nothing new in itself, but crucially, she has the conviction and charisma to almost make a sceptical old rock critic believe that singing along to your own recordings is an achievement equal to anything in the history of showbusiness.
Charli XCX is a thoroughly modern star who doesn’t need either critics or chart positions to cement her status, intuitively understanding the social media compact between contemporary artists and dedicated fan bases.
This week, she tweeted to end a drummed-up controversy over peculiar objects she has autographed, from bottles of amyl nitrate poppers to a fan’s mother’s ashes. She insisted on her right to deal directly with fans on her own frank and affectionate terms.
In much the same sense, her concert felt like a genuine and powerful interaction between audience and artist. Encouraging them to abandon inhibition and follow her dance instructions on the pummeling I Got It, she hectored: “It’ll look so great on your Instagram, don’t even think about it!” And, let’s face it, looking great on Instagram, live tweeting the show from your phone and taking selfies with the artist on stage in the background is what the modern concert experience is increasingly about. This is the future of pop, whether you welcome it or not.
Touring across Europe until Nov 28. Tickets: charli-the-album.co.uk