"Music, Fashion, Film" Review by gagzus

[gumzy3000 7,901]

Great review. Although I don’t agree with the 10/10 score, to me it’s more of an 8/10. 

This is an album you would appreciate more if you understood Charli and listened to Brat or at least knew about it. If not, I can see it being a challenge for people to take this album for its intended message. Im not saying the casual music fan won’t like this but they won’t appreciate it as much. 

That said, I think production wise it’s on its A game but the lyrics do feel all over the place sometimes and her vocals are a bit plain. I wish she polished it a bit more but I love in your review you mentioned this sounds like a band in the 90s making music in the garage. It definitely feels authentic and raw. 

I also felt the theme is existentialism. 

[gagzus 23,140]

2 minutes ago, gumzy3000 said:

Great review. Although I don’t agree with the 10/10 score, to me it’s more of an 8/10. 

This is an album you would appreciate more if you understood Charli and listened to Brat or at least knew about it. If not, I can see it being a challenge for people to take this album for its intended message. Im not saying the casual music fan won’t like this but they won’t appreciate it as much. 

That said, I think production wise it’s on its A game but the lyrics do feel all over the place sometimes and her vocals are a bit plain. I wish she polished it a bit more but I love in your review you mentioned this sounds like a band in the 90s making music in the garage. It definitely feels authentic and raw. 

I also felt the theme is existentialism. 

I had considered a like 8.5 or even 9/10 but it fits my life at the moment and music I love always seems to do that. So because of that it went to a 10. A lot of my opinions of albums change over time too, with Gaga I don't feel the same for example I feel like Mayhem is like a 10/10 and I now view BTW as a 7.5 or 8/10. Where as I mst certainly probably ranked and rated it higher back in 2011.

For vocals I think it's meant to be a stark contrast to "brat" in the sense that it feels raw, unedited and almost drone like. On a podcast I saw the other day she was breaking down the songs and I noticed there's a lot of drone music layers buried in the songs so I think the vocals are to add to that feel of existentialism. But I do see your point still.

[MountainMonster 2,716]

[LOVEDRUG 11,269]

I love Charli, but have made peace with the fact that she's going in a direction that I simply do not enjoy. There were a few decent tracks on here (I'm Afraid was very good, Card Declined was enjoyable) but there's something about this whole era I've just found rather off-putting. This is the first time I've listened to a Charli album and been able to hear the effort throughout, the result of which just didn't quite land for me. I enjoyed the Wuthering Heights soundtrack though, so I've not lost hope that she'll release something I enjoy more in the future.

[princedeeblebleble 3,646]

I'd agree on the album being really great conceptually and in the current sphere of music amongst the more mainstream girlies it's probably one of the most interesting outings. Love the lyrics, love the left field approach.. but I'd personally give it a strong 8.5, mainly because I feel like the songs DESERVED to be in the oven for  just a smidge longer to add that special something to make the song feel less like a wip demo and more like a finished statement.  Because the songs work in the context of the album but getting Rock music, Camera or SS26 on shuffle makes them sound really mh sadly because you kinda get in the song and them bam, no ending to move on.

[EART HL I NG 1,305]

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about MFF going into it. However, I listened to it at work yesterday and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Songs Charli and co. usually pick for singles never resonate with me but the rest of the album and the album as a whole usually ends up being good. 
 

The reservations about her authenticity this time around that  I had in the other thread ended up assuaged and I’m really appreciating this record. It’s not my favorite and I wish it had been more experimental, but it’s a solid 7 for me. 
 

and people need to chill on this thread. Opinions are opinions. There’s no need to start an argument. 

[Ziggy 14,049]

6 hours ago, LGAte said:

Charli fans are becoming like Nicki fans fr.

I like Charli XCX but acting like this was some 10/10 album is embarassing. I feel like people should start giving stars to the reviews themselves, and your review is exaggerated and filling in a lot of blanks that don’t exist on the album. 
 

the album: 6/10

your review of the album: 2/10

 

Stop trying to lie and gas up artists because the era of trying to initially gas up an album (that might legitimately just be meh) to keep your artist in favorability in pop culture is tired. 
 

artists put out meh albums sometimes. It’s not a 10/10. 

Ok that’s just your opinion but diva we’re on a stan forum ofc someone is gonna come through with a long af review of something g they loved. Someone loved Ga enough to make a site devoted to her and for others like u and me to share like we’re in the asylum girl  for what it’s worth im not even a superfan and was on the fence about this album pre release and heard it and think its def at least an 8 but could see where someone would say 10. I wouldn’t say it’s meh she just has a particular style atp which honestly in the slop era we’re in go off girl. Give us a specific and unique style

[Trevstar4 299]

Let’s go shopping.

Ill buy a handbag.

Ill buy some perfume.

[zevthepaparazzo 2,429]

my review is better than all your reviews

[Mars 2,658]

9 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I get where you’re coming from, but I think that that kind of assumes music has one functional role/mode, as opposed to being an expressive medium that can be shaped in any number of different ways and serve different functions. To me, listening to the album felt like reading through a semi-confessional collection of poetry or watching a short film, which I think is a valid mode for music to exist in. I don’t think any album necessarily needs one stand out, standalone song in order to be great in the same way I don’t think a movie or a book needs to have a specific scene or passage that you’d rewatch alone because, functionally, that’s just not really how they’re designed.
 

I know I’m being kind of pedantic, but  I think it’s interesting how often we evaluate music (particularly pop or pop adjacent music) primarily by whether it produces enjoyable/digestible standalone songs, when I think albums can also function more like unified works closer to films, novels, or collections of poetry, as well as having aesthetic aims beyond being pleasant or catchy. That doesn’t mean that the music doesn’t matter, I think it just changes the evaluative criteria to not merely is this “pleasing to the ear” or is this a “hit” or a “song I’d put on a playlist,” but rather: do I think this piece of music is effective at expressing or conveying what it seems to be aiming for and, from that POV, do I enjoy it or not? 

More broadly, I also find the reductionism of the need for music to be pleasant or immediately enjoyable frustrating, but that’s a lecture for another day lmao

I think you misunderstood, I'm all for playing with the medium and shaping a concept. I was just saying its a boring collection of music for me.

I dont doubt Charli's talents but you've got to admit she sounds super comfortable...

 

[Mars 2,658]

She should have called it "Mediocre, Fashion, Film" or am I just being a bitch?