Charli xcx

Early life

Charlotte Emma Aitchison was born in Cambridge, England, on 2 August 1992, the only child of nurse and flight attendant Shameera and entrepreneur and talent agent Jon Aitchison. Her mother was born into a Muslim family of Gujarati Indian descent in Uganda and moved to England after they were expelled by the Idi Amin regime. Her father is Scottish. She grew up in Start Hill, Essex, and spent weekends with her maternal grandparents in Crawley, West Sussex. She attended Bishop's Stortford College in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. She briefly lived with a friend in Joensuu, Finland, describing it as a "frightening experience". She has spoken extensively about her difficulties at school growing up, stating that she was a "half-Indian girl...

2008–2011: Career beginnings

At 14, Aitchison persuaded her parents to grant her a loan to record her first album, 14, and in early 2008 she began posting songs from the album, as well as numerous other demos, on her official Myspace page. This caught the attention of a promoter running numerous illegal warehouse raves and parties in East London, who invited her to perform at them. She was billed on flyers under the stage name Charli XCX; "XCX" (or "kiss Charli kiss") which was her MSN Messenger display name when she was younger. Despite the illicit nature of the gigs, her parents were supportive of her career and attended several raves with her. In late 2008, while 14 was never commercially released, she released the two singles "!Franchesckaar!" and double A-side...

Musical style

Music critics have characterised Charli XCX's music using a variety of terms, including electropop, dance-pop, synth-pop, alternative pop, hyperpop, pop-punk, dark wave, witch house, gothic pop, avant-pop, and experimental pop. Lyrically, her songs deal with numerous subjects, including sex, cars, hedonism, and love. Her earliest demos, including those released on Myspace, were described as "trashy techno". Subsequent releases were labelled as a blend of dark wave and witch house. Charli XCX's first album was described alternatively as gothic pop and synth-pop, while her second was described as pop punk, containing elements of punk rock, new wave and power pop. Critics marked the beginning of Charli XCX's collaborations with PC...

Influences

Charli XCX's influences include Britney Spears, Shampoo, No Doubt, t.A.T.u., the Donnas, Bikini Kill, Martika, Björk, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Feminine Complex, Donna Summer, Bread, All Saints, Uffie, Brooke Candy, Lil Wayne, Lily Allen, Kate Bush, Twin Peaks, Paris Hilton, Justice, Crystal Castles, Calvin Harris, Daft Punk, Sebastian, Honey Dijon, Robyn, Arca, M.I.A., Autechre, Aphex Twin, and Quentin Tarantino. She has also named Rihanna as her "favorite pop girl" and hopes to write a song for her. In 2017, Charli XCX said she aspired to write songs for Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani. She has said that True Romance was based on "Martika, and also the Cure and Britney", while influences of Belinda Carlisle, Marina and the Knife were...

claws

"Claws" is a song by British singer-songwriter Charli XCX. It was released as the second single from her fourth studio album, How I'm Feeling Now, on 23 April 2020.

Like the previous single, "Forever", the song has three official cover artworks, designed by Timothy Luke, Naked Cherry and Sara Cwynar. "Claws" was named one of the best songs of 2020 by NME and Rolling Stone.

Background

On 10 April 2020, Charli XCX posted a series of clips from upcoming songs on Twitter, asking her fans which one they liked best. On 13 April 2020, she announced that "Claws" would be the next single, though she was considering calling it "I Like" instead. The following day she confirmed that "Claws" would be the official title of the song.

Composition

Produced by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs, "Claws" is an electropop, glitch pop, and hyperpop song with elements of hip hop, electronica, pop and trance. It is about love in the time of self-isolation, inspired by her boyfriend whom she was quarantined with in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. About the song's production, Alex Robert Ross of The Fader said "it sounds like getting sucked into a modem and spat back out in a brightly colored cartoon".

Critical reception

Emily Tan from Spin described the beginning of the song as an "autotuned robotic snippet" that "transitions into a mid-tempo bounce" as "Charli explains how much she likes someone". Michael Love Michael of Paper wrote that the song "instantly sinks its claws into you and [won't] let go", and felt that "[people will] like everything about it". In a different article for the same publication, Matt Moen described the song as a "puppy dog-eyed bop about lovestruck infatuation" laid over "top of blown-out trap drums and caustic synths before descending into a euphoric trance break that comes in as the icing on the cake". Moen also talked about the "jittery effects" and "mindless repetition" that was "Stylistically more in line with the...

Music video

The music video for the song was released onto YouTube on 1 May. Given a premiere treatment, the video was directed by Charlotte Rutherford and featured XCX's boyfriend at the time, Huck Kwong. The video was filmed in a vlog-type style on a green screen keyed-in backgrounds that included rainbows, icebergs, high heels, and sports cars. Since the video's debut, she has released the non-edited green screen, allowing fans to download and play with various backgrounds.