Charli XCX

Pop music spent years being uncool. Not controversial, just beneath you - the thing record labels pushed on kids while real music happened elsewhere: indie bands whispering in dark rooms, or drum and bass, which at least had the decency of being too loud to think about.

But something shifted. Artists like HAIM, Sky Ferreira, Icona Pop started proving you could write a hook meant to stick without needing to apologize for it. That a great melody didn’t have to come with self-consciousness.

Charli XCX is 21, British, and she never learned any of that. Nuclear Seasons, Stay Away - they exist to be remembered and she doesn’t hide from that. True Romance takes the best of Spice Girls and S Club 7, cuts the dated production, and makes something that holds. It shouldn’t but it does.

SuperLove has a video in Tokyo, which fits - Tokyo understands that pop doesn’t need permission. Just color, motion, no apologies. It’s basically a fever dream of neon and it knows exactly what it is.

I’m not sure if this is a pop renaissance or just pop finally existing without an excuse. But there’s something genuinely good about music that wants to make you feel and move without making you feel stupid for wanting those things. Charli’s part of that - young enough that the self-consciousness never even reached her.