Star Scum City is the glittering and gritty electropop debut from Melbourne-based duo 2charm. Originally from Brisbane, 2charm’s Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield launched onto the scene with heart-thumping lead single Boyfriend in late 2025. Now, their first album serves as a colourful introduction to their world, in all its fruity sultriness.
Star Scum City review – quick links
‘Gooner pop’ for the chronically online
2charm have coined themselves the creators of the ‘gooner pop’ genre. Gooning, for those not chronically online, is a state of deep hypnosis achieved through rigorous and intensive self-pleasure.
Seeking inspiration from hyperpop, electro and bubblegum pop, Nelson and Netterfield’s focus on clean, danceable instrumentals means their debut album is just as suitable for close listening on headphones as it is for losing oneself in pleasure on the dancefloor.
Album opener no pressure launches like a plane off a runway, with lyrics about love and intimacy in the lead up to a night out while on a trip to Europe. Is pursuing the boy he desires the right decision? ‘Maybe I should leave my girl, I’m running out of lies to tell her anyway, no pressure though.’
Lead single Boyfriend takes us straight into the heart of the party, delivering the feeling of walking into a new club in a new European city, shaking off the jetlag as the doors swing open.
Tracking a dancefloor crush, the gentle lyrics in Boyfriend are accompanied by increasingly seedy synths. Lines flip from wistful – ‘I’m wishing on a star, wish he was my boyfriend’ – to the doomed realisation the man he’s making eyes with on the dancefloor is unavailable, inaccessible or heterosexual.
Heartbreak and hookups
Star Scum City does not overstate its intentions as it traverses its journey of heartbreak and hookups, infatuation and escapism. It is a bold and queered vision of summer love, and the tight nine-track setlist is as fleeting as the fling it follows.
The album draws on hypermasculinity to create a world of playful queerness. Online and on stage, 2charm don footy shorts and trapper hats as a signature look, turning their bodies into set pieces of homoerotic desire.
When performing, they do push-ups, they cross arms and lean back as far as they can, and at points one will kneel and wrap their arms around the other’s legs. Nelson and Netterfield, a couple in real life, subvert the brutish look of the typical Aussie, and expose the lingering queer subtext of these personas through their songs.
Look no further than the track girls to see how the album transfigures masculinity from rigid to exploratory. An ode to women, it shifts from loving women romantically to admiring them from the distance only afforded to queer men who aren’t trying to sleep with them.
Of-the-moment production
Star Scum City largely escapes the TikTok-ification trap of pop music where every song is two minutes long and lacking a bridge in favour of (potentially) viral hooks. The final track, arc de triomphe, is the only song that is woefully short, delivering a fast-paced but surprisingly mild closer to the otherwise bombastic LP.
For the most part, Star Scum City is incredibly cohesive, in part because 2charm worked with two main producers. The Simon Lam-produced you will never be alone in barcelona is a clear highlight. It’s a track that escapes meaning, throwing away labels and identification in favour of sensuous Eurodance bliss.
A rising star in her own right, producer Ninajirachi’s signature sound is masterfully interspersed throughout the album, but most identifiable on the standout track chateau. The choppy high-pitch backing vocals, which are distorted into giggly and synthetic beats, are buoyed by the surprising chorus, which is pared back to Nelson’s vocals with a heavy bass.
On girls, 2charm directly acknowledge their producer: ‘Nina on the beat, and the word that’s on the street is it’s all about girls’. Moments like these stand as a testament to 2charm and Ninajirachi’s status as artists to watch in the Australian pop landscape.
By the time we land in Paris (to get you out my head), that original Eurosummer dream is distorted, and the result is perhaps their most conventionally-structured song. Once again, music becomes the escape from the heartache, and the old adage that pop music is best when it sounds easy has never been truer.
Electropop has always been the genre of possibility, quite literally generating new sonic possibilities through synthetic sound and distorted vocals. Star Scum City is a deviously smart debut for 2charm, positioning the pair as an exciting voice in the Australian music landscape. They’re emotional, they’re sexy and mostly, they’re having a lot of fun.
2charm’s Star Scum City is released 27 February.
This article is published as part of ArtsHub’s Creative Journalism Fellowship, an initiative supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
