#2800 Charlie XCX - Pop 2

I'm down with big autotune. Human voices are boring. Shave off their everyday aspect to get at the frail spine. Pack in the difference with fat artificial synths. In a world increasingly lies, obfuscation and bullshit, artifice is the new sincerity.

Pop 2 works best when it commits, hits hard on the synths and cranks the distortions to 11 -- those first and last tracks are fucking staggering. In between it's too often too safe, too repetitive, too smoothed out - but there's enough flashes of boldness, especially on that bonkers I Got It // Femmebot turn to make it worth a listen 3.5/5