True Romance at 10: Why Charli XCX's Tumblr-core debut built the foundation for her weirdo avant-pop

Earlier this year, a screenshot of an email Charli XCX sent when she was just 14 years old went viral. Before she claimed her stage name, Charli Aitchison reached out to a local music festival inquiring if they had any slots for her to play, despite having “only done a couple of live performances.” The self-described “singer/guitarist” wanted “to get [her] music heard.”

It was very charming to see, especially since Charli XCX has been grinding ever since — releasing mixtapes outside of her record deal and pushing the boundaries of pop, while never quite touching the mainstream. After Charli sent that email, it wasn’t long until she became embedded in the U.K. rave scene and by 2010 signed with Asylum Records while still in her teens. She didn’t have a distinct sound quite yet; she went from guitar music to electronic to indie-rap. What she did have, though, was a drive and an eclectic vision for herself as an artist — the girl sending cold emails saw a future as the princess of avant-pop. 

Read more: How the 1975 made their iconic, Tumblr-defining music video for “Robbers

After some writing sessions with Asylum in which post-rave-scene Charli found herself bored crafting run-of-the-mill pop, she finally honed her sound while collaborating with producer Ariel Rechtshaid. They crafted the goth synth-pop song “Stay Away” and later, the blog-beloved single, “Nuclear Seasons,” eventually building the foundation for what became her debut True Romance, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 12. The album remains fascinating, signifying how much the hyperpop purveyor has consistently valued pop defiance. She did it all from the start, literally. The way the album opens with lyrics from “Grin” fusing into “Nuclear Seasons” — “Let’s die together, no one lives forever … Cause I feel like I’m in heaven, dancing” — it’s a rallying cry for a generation of alt-pop fiends searching for release, and a sentiment that still remains true among her legion of Angels. 

Despite emerging alongside electronic scenesters by releasing music on MySpace, True Romance found her entwined with Tumblr. Whether they sounded similar or not, she was considered a part of the Tumblr-core alt-pop set with bands like CHVRCHES, Purity Ring, Sky Ferriera, and Marina and the Diamonds (who she eventually joined on tour) — music that the cool pop kids reblogged. From her “soft grunge” style featuring her 2013 plaid skirt obsession and big, unruly curls, to the sort of disillusionment of her brand of pop, she was Tumblr music. 

True Romance-era Charli perhaps most embodied the Tumblr generation and caught people’s attention, though, because of how much the then-21-year-old recording artist understood the youth’s craving to be a part of something. After all, the Tumblr generation was a group of outsiders who were obsessed with scenes and subcultures, but ultimately disjointed and logging online to find them. In an interview with Rolling Stone about the album, she said, “In youth culture in particular, I don’t feel like there’s anything for people to really grab onto these days. There’s no movement to speak of.” She added, “For a long time now, a lot of people have been ashamed or embarrassed to say that they listen to pop music. I don’t think that will be the case for much longer — pop is going to become cool again, definitely.”

So she made it cool — before people even realized. True Romance was a sonic cool girl hodgepodge of everything from ’80s goth- (“You’re the One”) and synth-pop (“You (Ha Ha Ha),” “How Can I”) to electroclash (“Set Me Free (Feel My Pain)”) to bratty bubble gum pop (“What I Like”). There was also something entirely new, with several songs sounding like electronic-pop hyped up, yet still chic (“Take My Hand,” “Grin”). Her recent work may have been unlocked by working with SOPHIE and A.G. Cook a few years later, but there’s hints of what they discovered together on her debut. At the time with Rechtshaid, she found that experimental pop was where she felt most at home — the perfect marriage of her Spice Girls-obsessed and dance scene upbringing.

In what has become somewhat the story of Charli’s career, True Romance was an acclaimed album, but not a commercial success. “I Love It,” the massive hit she penned and gave to Icona Pop, almost made the tracklist — something Charli herself still can’t help but wonder what that might’ve done to her career. She knew then, though, that it wasn’t necessarily the right fit for her (even if she would follow the album up with her most traditional pop record, 2014’s Sucker). Her contemporary sound may have arguably found itself with 2016’s Vroom Vroom EP, but even still, True Romance is evidence that she was driving a lavender Lamborghini in her own lane long before that. 

Eventually, she’d drop the aforementioned “soft grunge” look and goth influence and lean into what she’d always been — a pop girl who never quite ditched being the eccentric cool kid. Rather than doomed romance equated to Tony Scott’s 1993 cult classic, her work now lives in the fantasy of nightlife, whether it’s a house party or a full-blown warehouse rave like the ones she DJ-ed in her teens. It’s no wonder that “Grins” and its Heaven-as-the-dance-floor sentiments are repeated throughout the album (“Cause I feel like I’m in heaven, dancing with an angel”). It may have taken years for more Angels to catch onto her brand of pop, but even with True Romance, she knew she was onto something in pushing the boundaries of pop and starting a movement in which that could be radically loved. That’s just Charli, baby, always 10 steps ahead, ascending to the ethers in the club.