REVIEW: Boom Clap by Charli XCX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOPMlIIg_38&feature=kp


I'm not a big movie person, and I haven't seen The Fault In Our Stars, but from what I've heard and seen, it looks pretty good and worth checking out. That said, the one thing I feared was that the lead single of the soundtrack to this movie would be a schmaltzy, cheesy, boring love song that wouldn't be all that good. Did that happen? Well, kind of. Here's what I mean by that, it's got cheesy elements, but it's actually very bombastic and has a good amount of energy behind it. And who's the mastermind that brought us such an amazing hit? Why, it's nothing more than Charli XCX.

Now, Charli XCX is what I like to call "Dev if she was any good." The reason I say this is because the two songs that Dev was tied to that got popular (Like A G6 by Far East Movement & Backseat by New Boyz) absolutely sucked. She was easily the best part of each song, but given how monotone and flat she was, I knew she couldn't carry a song on her own, and that was affirmed when In The Dark came out in 2011. The two songs Charli XCX has been featured on (I Love It by Icona Pop & Fancy by Iggy Azalea), on the other hand, are arguably extremely awesome. She has a lot of flavor and energy behind her voice (even if they are covered in effects and autotune) and really knows how to bring a lot to a song in order to liven it up. One question, however, still remained. Could she carry a song on her own? Well, in the case of this song, I'd say she did remarkably well.

Charli really knows how to make a song really upbeat while keeping the initial emotion in tact, and it shows here. She tones it down for the verses yet gives the chorus her all, and that really works in her favor. The lyrics are really sweet in the way that she describes this guy without being battered down with very many (if any at all) cliches, and as mentioned before, the production is lively and energetic while keeping the lovey-dovey mood in tact.

I do have one major complaint, however, and that would be that the song seems to be pretty unfinished. Seriously, the chorus is admittedly amazingly catchy, but it takes up the majority of the song. The verses are incredibly short and really don't give Charli the ability to show off how good her lyricism can really be, and I really wanted to see more than we got.

While it does knock the song down a few pegs, it's still a minor hindrance and doesn't prevent me from enjoying the song as much as I do. I give the song a 3.5 out of 5, and I really hope we hear more from Charli XCX in the future.