Thanks to her first five projects, running from 2013 to 2019, Charli XCX has consolidated her place at the forefront of pop avant-gardism. Eternally unsatisfied and workaholic, she now reveals how i’m feeling now, an opus produced in one month, in the midst of a global pandemic. Supported by producers emeriti A.G. Cook and BJ Burton, the English artist continues to push the limits of pop by incorporating electronic, techno, and industrial variations. The album’s central themes can be summed up in its title: a contemporary and introspective vision of the singer’s life, which takes no detours in depicting her relationship and the fluctuations in her mental health. While how i’m feeling now opens and closes with hymns to nightlife and partying, everything in between reveals Charli’s unconditional love for her boyfriend. Long united by a long-distance relationship, they are now exposed to each other’s fragility as they share the same roof during the time of confinement. She bears witness to this in the haunting “detonate” and “forever”, in which she displays a disconcerting lucidity about her emotional insecurity. If most artists suffer in the present context, Charli XCX has distinguished herself – once again – by transforming the winds of collective instability into a prodigious creative flow. Repeatedly listening to this experimental but accessible project leads to one conclusion: this is an album in full symbiosis with its rera, one that could not be more current in these dystopian times.
