It has taken the British pop sensation Charli XCX a few tries to get the formula right. But, with her latest mixtape Pop 2, she has released her most complete and outlandish project to date.

Charli has certainly taken the road less travelled to reach this milestone in her career.

Achieving mainstream success with the chart-topping single “Boom Clap,” the scene was set for her ascendance into pop stardom. Instead of diving into the mainstream pop scene, however, she set her sights on future pop, a genre of pop drawing inspiration from her earlier years spent with the London rave circuit.

Teaming up with PC Music, the London-based art label known for its exaggerated sound and highly manufactured approach to pop, she took her music in an entirely new direction. The Vroom Vroom EP released shortly after signalled a new dawn for Charli XCX and, building on this first foray into the future pop genre, she has not looked back.

The Pop 2 project features a collection of futuristic tracks that sound like the chart-topping album of the next decade. A mix of crazy production, colorful features and Charli’s warped vocals is ready to oppose the music that is cluttering mainstream radio and gives you a taste of what pop music has the potential to become. By design, her music defies every characteristic of contemporary pop, with songs that lack rhythmic coherency and often entirely abandon the verse-bridge-chorus structure.

There is a reason why her popularity has waned in the wake of her new approach: it opposes what people are used to hearing. However, she is very conscious that she is no longer a pop princess, even saying on the track Femmebot, “Go fuck your prototype, I’m an upgrade of your stereotype.”

The artists Charli assembled for this project are as weird and off the walls as the album itself. Established stars such as Carly Rae Jepsen and Jay Park are joined by underground artists including Tommy Cash, CupcakKe and Pabllo Vittar. The variety of unique talent Charli has unearthed and their contrast to her own vocals are what make the album tick.

Also, PC Music’s influence on this project cannot be overstated.

A. G. Cook, the head of the label and Charli’s creative director, produced almost every single track of the singer’s album. The synergy between the pair is apparent on tracks such as I Got It, which features some of the best bubblegum bass in the whole LP. The always vulgar CupcakKe adds an explosive interlude to Charli’s rhythmic verses, with Pabllo Vittar closing the track on a melodic beat-infused finale.

However, there are definitely low points on the project.

For instance, the plastic-sounding synths are the only real drawback of the song Tears. Even the opener Backseat, which features splendid vocals from Carly Rae Jepsen, is let down by cluttered production and I was left rueing all that the track could have been. Not all the features hit the mark either, and Jay Park on Unlock It delivers a performance of absolute mediocrity, adding little in the way of vocals and instead creating a lull in an otherwise fun and melodic performance by Charli XCX and Kim Petras.

What is clear, nonetheless, is that Charli XCX has truly embodied the role of the femmebot. The technology-infused pop star is ready to escape human monotony.

For now, the radio will continue to play the same true and trusted formulaic pop music, but Charli XCX gives me hope that change is stirring behind the scenes.

Favorite Tracks: Delicious, Femmebot, I Got It

Worst Tracks: Porsche, Tears