This Is Our Jam: Charli XCX, “Nuclear Seasons”

Rising UK pop artist Charli XCX may only be 19, but with “Nuclear Seasons,” she’s written a jam so immensely catchy no one would blame her for inexperience. The bubble-gum delivery and buzzing synths live in the same damaged yet triumphant realm as Santigold’s “L.E.S. Artistes” and Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” — infinitely replay-worthy songs that sounded perfect from the very first listen. It's the type of pop anthem that needs to play at a party’s apex, when you want everyone to share a moment of drunken revelry together. Then again, it could also be listened to at work, on the treadmill, or during your commute. Like all the best pop music, “Nuclear Seasons” redefines whatever activity you are doing at the time. Less than a week after its release, in any context, “Nuclear Seasons” sounds classic in its own right.