Charli XCX on the volatile pop of 'Crash'

Plus, a Tiny Desk (home) concert from Beethoven’s birthplace. [View this email online]( [NPR Music]( March 19, 2022 by [Marissa Lorusso]( This week, we’re sharing a Tiny Desk (home) concert from the home of Beethoven — plus, interviews with first-time Grammy nominees and a conversation with pop singer Charli XCX. [Charli XCX]( Emily Lipson When pop singer Charli XCX was 16 years old, she signed a five-album deal with Atlantic Records. Since then, she’s released four studio albums and a handful of collaborative mixtapes that have earned her a unique position in the pop landscape: major-label backing and stadium-filling ambitions matched by an experimental-leaning sound and devoted cult following. And rather than run out the clock on her Atlantic contract for her fifth album — called Crash, out this week — she decided to lean all the way into a mainstream pop persona. “There's been quite a lot of tension between the way I've chosen to do things and the way a major label expects female pop artists to do things,” [she told my colleague]( Reanna Cruz. “With this final album, the final album in my deal, I wanted to play into this idea of, ‘What if I played the game?’" Reanna calls the result “a 34-minute primer of pop music at its most fundamental.” Reanna is a long-time Charli fan — as they put it, they’ve been a fan “ever since I heard [‘Vroom Vroom’]( for the first time in high school, and my life was changed (for the better).” I asked Reanna about the interview, and why they wanted to talk to Charli XCX at this particular moment in her career. “With this album specifically, I was interested in Charli’s take on the genre at large, as well as the concept of pop stardom,” Reanna told me. “And I loved getting to go back and forth with her about two of my favorite things: Madonna and hyperpop. Such a slay.” --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- New Music - Even if you aren’t familiar with Jóhann Jóhannsson’s name, you’ve likely heard one of his scores for films like Arrival, Sicario, Prisoners, The Theory of Everything and more. This week on [New Music Friday]( from All Songs Considered, hear a conversation about Drone Mass, a posthumous release from the late composer — plus, more great releases out March 18. - On Rosalía's El Mal Querer — one of our favorite albums of 2018 — the Spanish singer experimented with trap, R&B and electronic music through the prism of flamenco. On her latest, the reggaeton-driven Motomami, she [interrogates the intoxicating power]( of her expanding fame. - [Ruth Slenczynska]( made her debut as a pianist at age 4. Now, she’s 97, and has a new album out called My Life in Music, on which she revisits pieces she's been playing for more than nine decades. Featuring - Ahead of this year’s Grammy Awards, which will take place on April 3, our friends at All Things Considered are profiling a number of first-time nominees, including three Best New Artist nominees: California rapper [Saweetie]( Pakistani singer and composer [Arooj Aftab]( and country singer [Jimmie Allen](. Plus, All Things Considered spoke to Best Musical Theater Album nominee [Barlow & Bear](. - Last year, our Turning the Tables series published essays about life-changing records by women artists. Now we’re digging deeper into that conversation with a series of podcast episodes featuring writers from the series talking about the albums they chose. On the latest episode, my colleague Ann Powers is joined by [two writers whose essays]( focus on how a life-changing album can reorient our ideas of success. - The late Shirley Horn had a jazz career that most musicians could only dream of, but it wasn't a straight trajectory: Her route to jazz stardom had twists and turns, a long hiatus, and a late career resurgence that yielded some of her finest work. On Jazz Night in America, hear a [brilliant 1991 performance]( from Horn during Jazz at Lincoln Center's inaugural season. Tiny Desk [Daniel Hope's Tiny Desk (home) concert]( Youtube Our Tiny Desk (home) concert series has brought us to some very special places and shown us some very special desks. But few can match the distinction of the tiny desk featured in [violinist Daniel Hope’s performance]( a traveling desk that once belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven. Hope performed at Beethoven-Haus, where the great composer was born in 1770 and which serves today as a museum and cultural institution. Also this week, we shared a performance by artist and [DJ Bonobo]( with a full band inside a Nashville warehouse. One More Thing [To rock, or not to rock…]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on [Spotify]( and [Apple Music]( What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [nprmusic@npr.org](mailto:nprmusic@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! 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