2charm

All of 2charm’s wet dreams come true on star scum city – an album that takes star-crossed footy boys from the summer streets of Australia to the beaches of Barcelona. On their first album, the Melbourne-based duo (who hail from Brisbane) melodise about the intricacies of queer love when it suffocates on small town streets and how it is born anew in ecstasy under the blinding strobe lights of European dancefloors. From top to bottom they have outgrown their hometown. So here is 2charm’s first-of-its-genre ‘gooner pop’ album – inspired by the EDM techno sleaze sounds of deadmau5, Sophie, Skrillex and Zedd and created in collaboration with Ninajirachi, 1tbsp and Simon Lam (Kllo, Armlock) – and it sounds worlds away from growing pains and uncertainty. Their escape to the big city is all about their newfound self-hood and it booms out with sparkling confidence.

‘boyfriend’ – their debut single – catapults you into the intimate story of two studs dipping their toes into a love that feels out of bounds. Snares teasingly bite your ears – the hot boy at the bar is giving you eyes from across the room: ‘Don’t know what to say / You start to move my way / My eyes are a giveaway / Looking at you so sweet / Won’t somebody help me’ (‘boyfriend’). But the crush fizzles away on the tongue into the high melodrama of ‘paris (to get you out my head)’. They croon about trying to escape their desires by jet-setting from Berlin to St. Tropez, but without a very good friend and roommate to share it with, the beach is a lonely place: ‘This is all I wanted / But I wanted it with you’ (‘paris (to get you out my head)’). Their voices melodise and fight against each other with vocal distortions that scream like battle cries for the relationship. The stretch and strain of the manipulated vocals pulls at the heartstrings while the piano draws you into this pop ballad that raises the tensions so that you feel it all when heartache makes the duo fight for each harder and harder and harder (so hard).

2charm’s sexed up sweaty club music is filled with dancefloor resolutions inspired by the laid bare honesty and sly winking style of Britney Spears’ Blackout. In star scum city the pair contribute to the night-time rituals that have brought them to their own self-realisations that are so clear like water in the lyrics ‘We’re burning in the dark / We can always find a light wherever’ (‘invisible wings’). These two masculine NRL playing boys – can you believe they’re gay? – are so far from the ‘mango tree … on the northside’ (‘chateau’) where their passion was a secret that sent them into hiding.

But small town fears are far away in ‘barcelona’; 2charm are comfortable in their bodies with sweat on the skin and headphones on. They’re locked into the music – Yung Lean’s ‘Ginseng Strip 2002’ has got them feeling hot – and they’re embracing another queer ritual – cruising strangers by the bay: ‘I’m walking to a naked beach / Steps locked in with the beat’.

There’s so much fun to be had and the world is a rolled out red carpet for 2charm, a duo that is so united, so in sync that you not only believe them when they sing ‘Together / We can do it / Forever / I just wanna sing for you’ (‘invisible wings’) but you pledge allegiance to star scum city.