Charli XCX - Songs For Sale (2018)

Most fans of modern pop music are familiar with Icona Pop's massive hit 'I Love It' and, by association, the fact that the Charli XCX-penned track became a breakout hit for both artists. But alongside building a name for herself through her own tracks, Charli has built a huge career as a songwriter in her own right. She's lent her skills as a songwriter for hire on songs for Camila Cabello ('OMG'), Selena Gomez ('Same Old Love'), will.i.am ('Boys & Girls'), MØ ('Drum'), Danny Brown ('Float On') and 'father of disco' Giorgio Moroder ('Diamonds'), as well as being recruited to write for Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Ryn Weaver, Julia Michaels, and Sky Ferreira, and she's even penned songs for James Blunt and Blondie. On her career as a songwriter, Charli has been vocal about how it's both a creative outlet for her as well as a money-making exercise to fund her wider creative projects. "When it comes to songwriting for other people, I've become quite ruthless. I see it as a creative outlet whilst I'm creating it, but after the song has been made, I wanna make money. I want the biggest artists to cut these songs, and I want them to be No.1" she told Fader shamelessly in 2014, adding "When it comes to my own record, that shit doesn't happen, so that's where I think about what I believe to be artistic, what I believe to be beautiful". The oldest song on here is 'Gravity', written when she was 14, and in 2017 she submitted it to Blondie after they'd expressed an interest in working with her, with the band including it on their 'Pollinator' album. She's continued to write for other artists right up to penning 'Someone New' for Astrid S in 2018, and many of these artists have snapped up these songs and subsequently taken them to the top of the charts, so you can now hear her original demos for two dozen of her songs that she offered for sale. 

Track listing

01 Girls Like Us (demo for TWICE 2011)
02 Hate You (demo for Britney Spears 2013)
03 Hell Yeah Baby (demo for Gwen Stefani 2013)
04 Heart In My Pocket (demo for Britney Spears/Iggy Azalea 2013)
05 Baby Boy (demo for Liz 2014)
06 Hard 2 Love (demo for Gwen Stefani/Britney Spears 2014)
07 Good Things Come (So Wait) (demo for Gwen Stefani 2014)
08 Burnin' Up (demo for Liz 2014)
09 Reflecting (demo for Selena Gomez 2014)
10 NYC (No Way Out) (demo for Sky Ferreira 2014)
11 Hold On Tight (demo for Jacob Sartorius 2014)
12 OctaHate (demo for Ryn Weaver 2014)
13 Same Old Love (demo for Rihanna/Selena Gomez 2014)
14 So Alive (demo for Neon Jungle 2014) 
15 Swords (demo for Julia Michaels 2015)
16 Hurts Like Hell (demo for Madison Beer 2015)
17 Kingdom Come (demo for Rita Ora 2015)
18 Pop The Balloons (demo for Little Mix 2015)
19 Issues (demo for Julia Michaels 2016)
20 Tear & Tantrums (feat. RAYE) (demo for XYLØ 2016)
21 Gravity (demo for Blondie 2017, written in 2010)
22 The Middle (demo for Zedd 2017)
23 Someone New (demo for Astrid S 2018)