Charli XCX - The Punk Album (2014)

2013 was the breakthrough year for Charli XCX, releasing 'You (Ha Ha Ha)' and announcing her debut album, followed by the 'What I Like' single in March. 'True Romance' was released in April 2013 and peaked at number 85 on the UK Albums Chart, at number five on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers, and at number 11 on the Australian Hitseekers Albums Chart. It was received well by music critics and the public alike, and in May she released 'Just Deserts' with Welsh band Marina And The Diamonds, followed by the video for 'Take My Hand' later that month. She began writing her second album in mid-2013, saying she initially wanted to go to India to record, and later deciding she wanted to record it in France, but in the end neither of these plans came to fruition. Frustrated with the music industry, she ended up going to Sweden, isolating herself from her record label, and made a punk-inspired album over a month. Working on the album with Patrik Berger, they made it at a fast pace, not over-thinking it and making everything really spontaneous. It was no surprise, however, that the record company were less than supportive of this new direction, and insisted on a more commercial collection of songs, so the punk album was scrapped and new songs were written with Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, with 'Boom Clap' being the first result of this collaboration. It was the first single released from the soundtrack of the 2014 film 'The Fault In Our Stars', and also served as the lead single for what would become her second album 'Sucker'. The album gained universally positive reviews from the music press, and it was named the best pop album of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. However, despite the successful release of 'Sucker', fans still clamour to hear that legendary scrapped punk album, and so I've collected together all the known recordings that were made in Sweden, including a cover of 'Allergic To Love' by Swedish punk-rockers Snuffed By The Yakazu, and I've given it a suitably 'punk' cover for you to enjoy. 

Track listing 

01 Mow That Lawn
02 Can U Please Shut Up
03 One Two Bamboo
04 Light It Up
05 Japan
06 Problematic Song
07 Allergic To Love
08 Like This
09 Let's Make Love
10 What You Do To Me
11 Blow Me Away
12 Not In Love (feat. Noonie Bao)
13 I Wanna Be Like You