360 by Charli XCX | Single Review
With another Friday here, Charli drops another single to her greatly anticipated studio album “Brat”.
LISTEN TO “360”: SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC
Picking up on where I left off with a review of her 2 earlier singles “B2B” and “Club Classics”, and a new track “360” which is also supposed to be an intro to the album.
To make a small recap, I strongly enjoy new records that Charli puts out, especially “Von Dutch” and “B2B” with “Club Classics” being on the weaker side.
As far as “360” goes, it sounds interesting. Again, it’s a futuristic vibe, but Charli’s delivery doesn’t have the same energy I wanted. Her cadence doesn’t quite correspond to the beat tempo, making her delivery sound drowsy.
What I really like though is that the singles focus more on the electronic aspects rather than pop ones, but the problem I have with this track is Charli herself. She sounds indifferent and fed up. On the track, she says that she is everywhere, and how stylish she is declaring her ubiquity not purely in the pop world, but globally. This message doesn’t really work because she doesn’t deliver it with enough emphasis, like she did in the previous tracks, so on the performance side, it falls short for me.
However, there are also positives about this track. Put it straight, it is catchy, especially in the way she comes to the chorus and says:
Yeah, 360, when you’re in the mirror, do you like what you see
When you’re looking in the mirror, you’re just looking at me
This chorus is memorable and infectious, what I cannot say about the track overall. It doesn’t give me the vibe you would expect from the intro track. It gives you calm delivery without any attention-grabbing moments and doesn’t light up you to listen further.
I think in the project context, if we put “360” somewhere in the middle, it might play better, because the track itself is only 2 minutes and 14 seconds, and still has an interesting production choice.
Not a big fan of this word for someone as talented as Charli, but the track is meh. It is not bad, but to say that it is captivating or engaging like some other elements from her catalog would be a lie.
Another thing I realized the more I listen to the track is that Charli’s vocals, which I usually love, sound kinda of subpar here with all those unnecessary pauses after each word.
To sum it up, it is the weakest single of the new album yet. I don’t feel the slightest effort on this one, except for the production and a few lines.
FINAL GRADE: 6.4/10 ( OK )
Scores guideline:
0–2 (dramatically bad)
2.1–4.5 (bad)
4.6–6 (mediocre/mid)
6.1–6.9 (Ok)
7–7.5 (good)
7.6–8.6 (great)
8.7–9.9 (amazing)
10 (perfect)
