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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
Entertainment Weekly

Sucker is pop-punk, radically redefined and dragged, middle fingers waving, into the future.

90
Billboard
Perhaps more than any other young hitmaker, Charli has a sound that is distinctively her own, despite the murderers' row of producer-songwriters onboard.
83
Pretty Much Amazing

Sucker’s greatest musical weapon is Aitchison’s voice — a posh, melodramatic caterwaul that will encourage either adoration or virulent hatred for all of its full-throated, Union Jack swagger.

82
Northern Transmissions
The record is punky, but never exudes any feaux toughness– this record knows it’s pop, it just happens to be made by someone who digs on Buzzcocks as much as the Spice Girls.
80
Time Out London
‘Sucker’ sounds like an album made by someone you’d want to raid the mini bar with.
80
Louder Than War

Sucker is full colour power pop perfection. Fast paced, bouncing and packed with quirky electronic punctuation.

80
The Arts Desk

'Break the Rules' sounds like a gang of girl bikers kicking in the door of a warehouse rave.

80
The Observer

A sneery, nagging, chanty, leopardskin-toting, Lolita-nodding take on several kinds of pop that, despite its dissemination, warrants praise and affection on its home soil debut.

80
The Telegraph

Punchy aggression meets bubblegum sweetness: Sucker is a cocky riposte to anyone who doubted the 22-year-old Brit.

80
NOW Magazine
Finally, a top 40 album that attempts to capture the restless energy of recent times and spit it out in a way that doesn't just feel good, but honest, too.
80
Clash

This collection’s predecessor, 2013’s ‘True Romance’, showcased an artist willing to take on the pop world. ‘Sucker’ finds that same, singular performer rewriting the rules entirely, never mind breaking any, and beating pop at its own game.

80
Slant Magazine
Someone needed to author the aural equivalent of the body shot, and Charli XCX has provided the platonic ideal of just that: a party album charged equally with punkish rebellion, hip-hop cool, and pop universality.
80
Rolling Stone

Sucker is no retro gesture: Charli runs the album's rock & roll guitars and attitude through enough distressed digital production and thumb-type vernacular to make this the first fully updated iteration of punk pop in ages.

80
The Line of Best Fit

Sucker is a perfect transition into the conventional zeitgeist. It's cynical, it's coy, it's assertive, but it's catchy as they come, with no pandering, no putting on airs and no shortage of substance.

80
DIY
For all its instant appeal, this is for the most part an album that eschews pop convention. After years of being synonymous with the prefix ‘ft.’ Charli XCX has found her voice.
80
Drowned in Sound
Alongside the aforementioned bumbled release strategy, it’s another unwelcome interference on an album that deserves to be ranked amongst 2015’s best.
80
AllMusic

It succeeds as an introduction to Charli XCX the Pop Star while retaining her whip-smart songwriting and attitude.

80
NME
This year’s first great pop record bowls in with a rapturous celebration of the genre's rebellious, trashy potential (and a bottle of champagne and a pocketful of pills to boot).
80
SPIN

Sucker is just an exceptionally good pop album.

80
No Ripcord

Sucker is a one-two punch of wit and grit, as irreverently bratty as the lollipop Charli holds on the cover yet never impersonal, perfunctory, or insincere.

80
The 405

Sucker has a sonic density and a breadth of ideas that bely its lyrical simplicity.

76
Pitchfork
It's not her finest work, but it's plenty good enough to rope a cohort of new fans into what's promising to be one hell of a creative ride.
76
Sputnikmusic

Sucker, for all its charms, occasionally comes off as one-dimensional. But there were few records this year as sparkly and blindingly colorful, with production values that revel in excess and a mischievous spirit that rivals the best of Charli’s rebellious, sexually adventurous forebears.

72
Paste

For all her bratty star power, Charli XCX’s purest magic lies in the intimate—not the irreverent.

70
Loud and Quiet

An album that is unashamedly pop but with a refreshing amount of self-awareness and craft to back it up.

70
Under the Radar

For her second album Sucker, Charli has created a shotgun blast of EDM-heavy pop that doesn't feel formulaic like so many other major label releases that look to blow up dance floors.

70
Exclaim!

More than a dozen collaborators — including Ariel Pink, Ariel Rechtshaid and Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij — helped realize these 14 tracks, but their voices never overshadow Aitchison, who is finally given the spotlight she's rightfully earned.

70
Spectrum Culture

Sucker is a remarkably refined album, with no song longer than four-minutes and no filler to speak of.

70
musicOMH

While she may not have the precision marketing behind her of someone like Taylor Swift, Charli XCX’s Sucker is a defiant statement of her intent to do things her way.

67
Consequence of Sound
She’s successfully roping punk into pop and laughing her way to the top.
67
A.V. Club

It does craft a distinct sound that represents a significant step forward in turning her into a bona fide solo act.

60
The Guardian

If her songwriting occasionally misfires, churning out stuff that’s indistinguishable from every other indistinguishable song on the Radio 1 playlist – the Rita Ora feature Doing It is a case in point - it’s frequently dead on target.

60
Uncut
It's a shouty, attitudinal set that connects Ke$ha to Britney Spears and Cyndi Lauper.
60
PopMatters
So much of the album winds up repeating itself thematically that despite the giddy sugar rush one feels when overloaded with hooks like these, a surprising amount of the songs here don’t have that much staying power, especially during the disc’s final stretch.
60
Q Magazine

Refreshingly free of focus-grouped compromises, Sucker is certainly full of character. It's just that the character is a cartoon.

Case
70

CHARLI XCX’S DISCOGRAPHY DIVE #2

After enjoying but not being super impressed with “True Romance”, I was excited to hear “Sucker”, which has a few songs I do know. And while I do enjoy it and prefer it to True Romance, it still isn’t as boundary pushing or memorable as I usually expect from her. It has more memorable highlights than her debut for me, such as “Break The Rules”, “London Queen”, and “Boom Clap”, but it still ... read more

surlace
78

Sucker is intensely front loaded, there are many songs on the back half that are equally as catchy as the rest but are ten times as repetitive. I’m a *sucker* for Charli so it doesn’t bother me too much, but it definitely sticks out when so much of her other work is not as redundant.

exception
78

EDIT: yeah, so i thought that this was an awesome album a few months ago, but its basic pop, still good, but basic.
original review:
this was a surprise to me. i first heard boom clap when the trailers for "the fault in our stars" came out, and i thought it was a catchy song, but was unsure how long it would last. charli xcx proved herself with this very strong album full of radio ready pop anthems. i love the different feels of each track, and just charli's expression put into the ... read more

78

Starts weak, ends super strong

Saeyoung_Choi
95

Luved it

nnofficial
79

a perfectly executed pop album. one feel-good, irresistible, instantly catchy tune after another.

favs: sucker // boom clap // doing it // ♡ die tonight
least favs: london queen // gold coins

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Track List

1Sucker
2:43
72
2Break the Rules
3:23
76
3London Queen
2:51
68
4Breaking Up
2:17
69
5Gold Coins
3:02
68
6Boom Clap
2:49
85
7Doing It
3:48
feat. Rita Ora
79
8Body of My Own
2:45
71
9Famous
3:51
74
10Hanging Around
3:18
62
11Die Tonight
2:51
66
12Caught in the Middle
3:01
69
13Need Ur Luv
3:45
71
Total Length: 40 minutes
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Added on: August 18, 2014