brat by Charli xcx // Album Review
The act of being BRAT, to me, is being unabashedly confident in yourself and your vision, but also simultaneously living alongside a lot of deep fears and insecurities. She presents herself in both ways throughout this record, which is such a true and honest depiction of the inner battle a lot of women face on a daily basis. That duality is so important to recognize, and I love the way she showcases both sides of herself throughout BRAT.
"It felt like everybody was too bogged down with being liked, being quote-unquote kind, being unbelievably human, but not really actually presenting what being human is, which is extremely flawed, messy, problematic, stressed out, anxious," Charli said in an interview with Vogue Australia. "I was responding to that because that just felt very boring and not very real. It’s a packaged version of 'realness'. 'I was like, okay, maybe I should just be, actually, really real. That is kind of a shock to the system because the reality is everybody’s not nice all the time. Everybody’s not perfectly polished all the time. Everybody’s not 'curatedly messy but in an aesthetic way' all the time either."
Although this is very much a club record, it also dives really deep into Charli's mind. She opens up about her deepest thoughts, her relationship with fame and her peers in the industry, processing grief, falling in love and wondering if she is ready to be a mother, while also working through her own generational trauma. All of this is framed in a very meta, post-modernist lens with some of the most insane club beats behind it.
Someone listening to this album for the first time 20 years in the future will be able to get a clear look into this current era of pop culture and very niche internet subcultures. It is very specific, and I can one day see this not only becoming a future classic pop album, but also a really cool time capsule of this time in music history. I also love all of the many shoutouts to her partner George Daniel, who produced two of the tracks on this album, as well as her other collaborators like A.G. Cook, HudMo, SOPHIE, The Dare and many more. She also name drops other it-girls throughout like Lana Del Rey, Julia Fox, Gabriette, among others. She is so blunt in her writing, which sounds very stream of consciousness and conversational lyrically.Charli doesn't get overly caught up on trying to make a song sound poetic necessarily, as she is often writing her unfiltered thoughts exactly as she thinks them. At the same time, every song is endlessly catchy and maximalist, but still uncompromising in bringing true introspection and depth to every track. I love seeing the way she was able to bring her artistic vision to life. Another aspect that shines through in this music is the fact that this seems to be truly the music Charli really wants to be making right now and has been trying to make for years. In every regard, BRAT is so representative of who she is as an artist. When I think of BRAT, I truly do believe that it is the height of modern pop music in a lot of ways and I already believe it is among the best of the best in the genre. "I've made records in the past where I felt like, 'Oh, this should really resonate with a lot of people,' but it doesn't," Charli said in an interview with Vogue Australia. "So, it’s cool, but I also feel like I deserve it. It’s nice to be vindicated."
With BRAT, she borders on being both on the side of achieving niece cult classic status, while also being able to reach massive mainstream success in a way I really haven't seen done before like this. It is also worth noting how majorly impactful the entire marketing around this record has been, BRAT is truly the gift that keeps on giving. When I first saw the now iconic album cover, it was a bit jarring, but in the context of the rest of the album and how deep these songs go, that simple, yet bold, green cover makes so much more sense. It intentionally pushes the boundaries against what is typically expected from a female pop artist like this; her face isn't on it, the text is a bit blurry, and it's an intentionally harsh shade of neon green. In an interview with Billboard, Charli called the color "actually quite disgusting", but says she chose it because "...it sparks a really interesting conversation about desirability... It had to be really unfriendly and uncool."
At first glance it kind of comes off like she doesn't care, but if you listen to the music, she makes it obvious that she actually does care a lot. Coming off one way in your outward presentation but having so much hidden underneath the surface is really what BRAT is all about at it's core. It is a genius move on her part from a marketing standpoint too because now when I see anything this shade of green, it immediately is just so brat. It kind of integrated itself into every part of life in a really major way...BRAT is all around us!
"I went my own way and I made it, I'm your favorite reference, baby," are the iconic opening lines of BRAT, which perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the record to come. This song is so self-empowered and unapologetically celebrates the indisputable star power she has and the impact she has made in the music industry. As Charli says herself, her "legacy is undebated" at this point, and this entire album only goes on to further solidify that. Again, she has this unbridled level of confidence in her art that makes this music just sound so much better because the listener can hear the way she really loves everything she's making and believes everything she's saying. It is refreshingly authentic and honest in every way. That truly does shine through in every song, but she specifically calls it out herself in the second verse of "360" when she sings, "If you love it, if you hate it, I don't fucking care what you think".
"I kinda miss the time when pop music was really volatile and crazy. I miss the Paris Hilton days. Everybody is so worried about everything right now, how they’re perceived, if this art they’ve created is going to offend anyone,” Charli told The Face in early 2024, shortly before the album was announced. "It limits creative output to think like that." CRASH, the last album she released in 2022, was made with the intention of it being a more inoffensive and commercially palatable pop record in contrast to BRAT. I always loved that album too, but especially when looking at BRAT and back at the rest of the music she was making prior, it was very safe and basically took a complete opposite approach to what she is doing now. BRAT feels like a return to form for Charli as an artist, especially with the ways she takes inspiration from British rave culture and electronic dance music. "I just needed to go back there, particularly after how traditionally pop CRASH felt,” she said in an interview with Vogue. "I always work in contrasts - each thing I do has to be completely polar opposite to the next thing. Electronic music is also my true love, and at the beginning of my career I was starting out in raves in London, so it kind of feels like going back to my roots."
The second track fully embodies BRAT to me, especially the wild, fun party vibe that makes up a big part of this record. "Club Classics" was produced by two of her frequent collaborators, A.G. Cook and her fiancé and producer/drummer of The 1975, George Daniel. "'Club Classics' started in George's kitchen,” Charli wrote on Instagram when it was released. "I was talking about missing hearing Sophie’s music as much as I used to at parties and ended up turning this thought into a song about only really wanting to hear my own music and my friends' music at clubs (true)." That sentiment is exactly what the song is lyrically too, with lyrics like "I wanna dance to me, I wanna dance to A.G., I wanna dance with George, I wanna dance to SOPHIE," etc. is repeated throughout the song, which very much sets the scene for this non-stop dance party that makes up the BRAT listening experience. My favorite is the line, "Yeah I wanna dance to me me me me when I go to the club club club club". That is so bratty in the best way!
On an episode of the Tape Notes Podcast, Charli, A.G. and George talked about intentionally leaving in some of the imperfections and out-of-tune moments, whether it's on the vocals or the production. Charli said, "...it can sometimes be really hard when it's really janky and out of tune." While this song and the rest of the album is heavily electronic, it kind of gives a more innately human element to it in that way, which is something that feels very BRAT to me in a lot of ways and is very much the ethos behind what this album really is. I highly recommend checking out that podcast if you want to hear early versions of "Club Classics" and the in-depth process of making the song from the three of them!
"Sympathy is a knife" is another highlight, one that represents the inner turmoil she sometimes faces in terms of her career and dynamics of the music industry. Specifically, the pressure that women in general can often face when it feels like society is pitting them against each other or made to view them as competition. I never really heard a song like this before, it is so refreshingly honest in the way she describes this sense of overwhelming jealousy as she enters this mental spiral. "This one girl taps my insecurities, don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling," she sings in the opening lines. Although her circumstances are unique, these are very universal thoughts that many women have at some point in their lives. I'm sure we have all got stuck in a rut over comparing yourself to someone else who has no idea about this one-sided competition. The listener can really hear the way Charli's anguish and emotional breakdown continues to build all throughout the song. The way Charli so vividly depicts this situation she's in is so poignant, she describes feeling trapped in an endless cycle of feeling like she isn't good enough and no one else could ever understand these feelings she has. "'Cause I couldn't even be her if I tried, I'm opposite, I'm on the other side, I feel all these feelings I can't control," she sings in the chorus.
"Sympathy is a knife" doesn't mention anyone specifically, although conclusions can definitely be drawn from the last verse of the song about who may have brought up all of these feelings. In the most revealing line she sings, "...don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show, fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick". I won't get too into it here, but that is a really killer line that can only be really referring to one person only. I think a lot of people probably take this song and that lyric specifically as something negative, but it really isn't at all, it's more-so grappling with her own internal thoughts than serving as a negative depiction of anyone else. Having this sort of back-and-forth battle with yourself internally is a topic that makes up a major part of BRAT. "I might say something stupid", the following track, directly follows that same mindset as she wonders if she's cut out for this career anymore. "Door is open, let in but still outside, I look perfect for the background," Charli sings in the first verse. "'Cause I don't know if I belong here anymore". The song is kind of over before it even begins, but the way it cuts off very abruptly kind of feels like she is stopping herself before she goes too far and reveals too much. This song goes in tandem with "Sympathy is a knife" in a lot of ways, although they are sonically very different. Both are these really raw depictions of what it feels like to compare yourself to someone and not being able to move past it to the point of these thoughts really start to affect you.
"People are gonna think what they want to think," she said in an interview with The New Yorker. "That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt."
Another connection comes later in the album on the incredible "Girl, so confusing". This song is referring to a different situation where she is trying to make sense of the complexities within female friendships. Charli sings about wanting to be closer friends with this other popstar, although she always gets mixed signals from her and thinks they are too opposite of each other to ever really have a meaningful friendship. Based on the context of the song and some of the details, it was widely assumed at first that this song was about her friendship with Lorde. "People say we're alike, they say we've got the same hair," she sings in the pre-chorus, "One day we might make some music, the internet would go crazy". That may sound like a simple line that doesn't give much away, but the biggest revelations of this album often come in the most subtle lyrics. Although Charli and Lorde are both very different artists, they have often been endlessly compared since the time they started their careers in the mid-2010's. They both have the same big curly hair, had massive breakthroughs in music around the same time, and having similar crossover in their fanbases are just a few of the ways they have been commonly linked to each other for the past ten years or so.
Despite all of the reasons everyone tells them they are alike, they just never really clicked as friends which often leaves Charli with these conflicting feelings. "Yeah, I don't know if you like me, sometimes I think you might hate me, sometimes I think I might hate you," she sings in the first verse. "You always say, 'Let's go out', so we go eat at a restaurant, sometimes it feels a bit awkward, 'cause we don't have much in common". Charli is often left in this limbo of confusion from the mixed signals she was getting and decides to finally address it in a song. In the chorus, Charli repeatedly sings, "It's so confusing sometimes to be a girl" - which is so true and really is the perfect way to put it. I never heard anyone in her position before being this upfront and honest about these feelings and it is so brave to admit them.
Soon after the release of BRAT, it was confirmed by Charli that this song is inspired by her friendship with Lorde. Although she said in an interview with Vogue Australia that she wasn't nervous to put "Girl, so confusing" out, she was "prepared for Lorde to never speak to me again because it’s such a heavy thing". The opposite outcome actually ended up happening, with Charli and Lorde "working it out on the remix". The remix is incredible, I don't even have the words to describe the feeling I had the first time I listened to it. I never heard a song quite like this before and honestly feel forever changed by it in a lot of ways. "I knew in my heart of hearts that it was not a diss track, and I knew the feeling I was talking about would be recognized by so many women out there who have this sort of tricky, unspoken conflict with somebody that they actually do really like and respect, but it’s just so hard to quantify," Charli continued in her interview with Vogue Australia. "We don’t have the language for it, and in most cases, if we did vocalize it, we would be shamed or told that we were not a girls' girl, not a feminist, all those things."
The "Girl, so confusing" remix now tells the other side of the story, with Lorde admitting that she has been fighting her own inner battle and trapped in a cycle of self-hatred. As a result of that, she retreated into herself, but outwardly would end up unintentionally seeming stand-offish to others. A lot of it ended up being just a projection of their own insecurities onto the other, which they both do such a great job at portraying. Lorde sings, "You'd always say, "Let's go out", but then I'd cancel last minute, I was so lost in my head and scared to be in your pictures, 'cause for the last couple years, I've been at war with my body, I tried to starve myself thinner, and then I gained all the weight back".
The best part of Lorde's response to this is that she fully matched Charli's energy in every regard for this remix. The way Lorde is singing and writing on "Girl, so confusing" is unlike any other song she has ever made and I love that she fully immersed herself into the bratosphere in that way. It is very conversational and honest, as they are literally talking back and forth to each other in the same song. "I never thought for a second my voice was in your head," Lorde continues in the song. So many lyrics from her verse hit me so hard every time I hear them, but the final few lines especially always give me chills, "And it's just self-defense until you're building a weapon, she believed my projection and now I totally get it, forgot that inside the icon, there's still a young girl from Essex". That final line best sums up what BRAT is at it's core and it just evokes so much raw emotion. As a woman, no matter how old we are or how confident we may appear outwardly, that little girl we once were is always apart of us and Lorde described that so poignantly. I just love Lorde so much, she is truly the most incredible lyricist and always is able to make sense out of these hard to describe feelings in a way like no other.
"I'm not saying I'm the first to do anything," Charli told Vogue Australia, "but as far as I'm aware, I'm not super familiar with any other songs that address female relationships with two artists talking about each other on the same record. It felt like a real moment that I'm so proud and happy I got to do with her." Although "Girl, so confusing" is about the back and forth of two popstars, these feelings and messy friendship dynamics are so universal. Everyone has had a Lorde to their Charli or a Charli to their Lorde, if that makes sense. I know I can definitely see myself in both of them in this situation.
"People say we're alike, they say we've got the same hair, it's you and me on the coin the industry loves to spend, and when we put this to bed the internet will go crazy," they sing together. Lorde finishes the line, "I'm glad I know how you feel, 'cause I ride for you, Charli". They are two of the greatest artists of this generation and seeing them come together like this has been something so incredibly special to witness. It is just so powerful and inspiring in every way to hear this. I cried the first time I listened to it, especially at the end when they are singing together - I get chills just thinking about it! People just don't make songs like this and I found the journey from beginning to end so moving - from hearing the original version and seeing this online conversation surrounding it, to it all leading up to the remix featuring Lorde herself. It's just magic and what BRAT is all about to me. Brat summer has gone places that I could have never imagined when I first heard this album and it has only just kept on rolling ever since.
This is what it looks like when two artists are fully in it for the love of the art and to create an iconic moment for the fans that have been following this entire journey from the start. Remixes so often feel lazy or thrown together for the sake of chart manipulation, but all of the remixes that have been released alongside BRAT have done nothing but only further enhance the original songs and it is so refreshing to see that. Needless to say the internet did, in fact, go crazy for this masterpiece and I love it so much! You know I ride for you, Charli (and Lorde) 💚
With all of that being said about "Sympathy is a knife" and "Girl, so confusing", Charli has made it very clear that none of the songs on BRAT were intentionally meant to be a diss track to anyone but instead is meant to portray her own feelings and the complications between friendships and peers in music. I thought that was clear from the start, but of course everything on the internet always has to get blown out of proportion and made into something it's not. "I just wanted to come on here and clarify that there aren't, apart from maybe 'Von dutch,' which kind of is, but the other tracks in question aren't diss tracks," she said on TikTok prior to the album's release. "These songs are kind of about how as a woman, as an artist, some days you can feel on top of the world. Some days you can feel unbelievably insecure. Other days, you can feel highly competitive, sometimes you can feel like literal trash," she continued. "And it's really emotional. And it's complicated to deal with. And we're not supposed to talk about it. But these songs do talk about it, and I'll probably be chastised for it, but whatever, it's reality."
The album's lead single, "Von dutch", really feels like the centerpiece of the entire album for me. It captures that quintessential BRAT attitude in the best way and is such a major moment of this album. The song is named after the cult classic fashion brand, which was very popular in the early 2000's and worn by Y2K icons such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and many more. It was the perfect introduction into all that was to come with BRAT as a lot of the album stems from the energy of this song. After listening to a song like "Sympathy is a knife", it felt like "Von dutch" took on a new meaning in the context of the rest of the album too, which is interesting how the perspective shifted a bit after hearing more from BRAT. "It's okay to just admit that you're jealous of me, yeah, I heard you talk about me, that's the word on the street, you're obsessing, just confess it, put your hands up, it's obvious I'm your number one," Charli sings in the first verse.
It kind of feels like it could be a diss track on herself too, or maybe a diss track on celebrity culture as a whole, with the swarm of media that surrounds it. It's something I didn't catch onto until hearing it in the context of the rest of the album, but it really does feel like it is poking fun at the spectacle of it all in a very bratty way. In an interview with Vogue, Charli talked about her decision to make "Von dutch" the album's lead single; "It's kind of a punch: aggressive, confrontational, icy, in-your-face...All the things a brat is. It just felt natural."
"B2b", which stands for "Back to back", is another one of my absolute favorites from the album. It is so addictive to listen to, I haven't been able to get enough of this song since it was first released and anticipate it being one of my most-played songs by the end of the year. She and her collaborators somehow figured out a way to make repetitive not sound annoying, which is a testament to how well her music is produced. While lyrically most of these songs are relatively simple, the production really takes this listening experience to a whole new level. Plus, Charli is the only artist I know of that can make a song that repeats the word "back" ~236 times in a row sound genuinely cool and interesting!
That same sentiment carries over into a few other songs on the album too, like "Everything is romantic" and "Talk talk". "Everything is romantic" blends electronic beats with a little bit of orchestral elements at the same time. It feels very European brat summer to me as she paints the full visual of Capri in the distance and seeing "bad tattoos on leather-tanned skin, Jesus Christ on a plastic sign, fall in love again and again, winding roads, doing manual drive," as she repeats several times throughout the song. She produced it alongside A.G. Cook and El Guincho, who frequently works with Rosalía as well. This song reminds me so much of his work on her 2022 album MOTOMAMI, which is incredible and I would love to see her collaborate with Charli on a remix of this song.
"Talk talk" is another one of my absolute favorites from the album, which focuses on the early days of her relationship with now-fiancé, George Daniel. It is such a cute and fun song, with Charli detailing the time they saw each other at an award show and she tried to play it cool and put up a confident front, but inside was feeling so excited and giddy over the prospect of even talking to him. It is such a great song and so addictive to listen to as well.
The most heart-wrenching moment of the album comes on track nine, "So I". It was written as a tribute to her late friend, mentor and collaborator, SOPHIE, who passed away tragically in early 2021. Charli has credited her many times as one of the biggest influences in her music and in her life.
This song now serves as such a beautiful remembrance of their friendship and once in a lifetime creative partnership they shared. Charli tries to process this overwhelming loss, while holding an immense guilt for wishing she let herself be closer to her instead of pushing her away at times. "There was a lot of distance between us because I was in awe of her and wanted to impress her," Charli said in an interview with The Face. "She believed in me in ways that I didn't believe in myself. But I felt like I would never be interesting enough to operate in her world outside of the studio, which was the safe space where we could connect and bond over music." She continued, "I didn't feel like I was magical enough for this unbelievably magic person. And that makes me ashamed now I don't have the opportunity to experience that anymore, because she's gone. I feel ashamed for being a coward. It’s hard to write about. I'm sad for myself that I didn't experience all this person had to offer."
The song lyrically references and interpolates one of SOPHIE's most famous songs "It's Okay To Cry", which adds another layer of meaning to this song. It is also very stripped back in terms of the vocal production too, especially compared to much of her previous work, with minimal autotune and vocal effects used. There is so much sincerity behind her words and I love that she let her real voice shine through in this song. Charli is truly so brave to share a song as honest as this, it is so admirable. "When I'm on stage sometimes I lie, say that I like singing these songs you left behind and I know you always said, 'It's okay to cry', so I know I can cry, I can cry, so I cry," Charli sings in the chorus. This song makes me tear up every time I hear it, there are so many lyrics that are just so raw and evoke so much emotion.
"Your sounds, your words live on, endless, when I make songs, I remember things you'd suggest, 'Make it faster', Would you like this one? Maybe just a little bit?" Charli sings in the second verse. SOPHIE's legacy will forever live on in the hearts of all who loved her and electronic and pop music will forever be changed by her innovations.
"Rewind" is a song that Charli wrote in response to having a song chart for the first time in years, after the release of "Speed Drive" for the Barbie soundtrack in 2023. She was working on BRAT at that time and was asked by Mark Ronson to write a song for a car chase sequence in the film. Charli said she wrote that song in under 30 minutes and didn't really think anything of it at the time, but it ended up being used for a pivotal part of the movie and subsequently had a big moment last summer, along with the rest of the soundtrack. "I wrote 'Rewind' as a reference to the feeling of 'Wait, now I’m having this big moment with 'Speed Drive.' Fuck, that feels so random,'" she said in an interview with Billboard. "I don't really do this for the charts...no offense," Charli continued.
Charli is an artist that had really massive mainstream success very early in her career both with her own music and also as a co-writer for some of the biggest pop songs of the past decade by other artists. She has definitely taken a lot of different paths throughout her career and has really seen all sides of the industry in that regard. The pop star journey she has been on is so singular and really can't be compared to another. A lot of her music in recent years has somewhat flown under the radar in terms of chart performance, but her goal with the music she releases has nothing to do with the commercial aspect of it. I think that's what is so refreshing about an album like BRAT having such a massive moment in pop culture right now is that it truly did come so naturally. No part of this album or its promotion felt like a manufactured, mass-produced type of pop record full of songs that are intentionally made to be these viral moments or chart-topping hits. From start to finish, it really is so evident that she's doing this because she wants to and because she had a clear vision for what she wanted it all to be. It is so refreshingly candid and authentically her in every way, which makes every part of the success she has found with BRAT so much more exciting to see.
"Rewind" is kind of written from the perspective of wishing she could go back in time to when she didn't care about the way people are perceiving her, didn't care about what her face or her body looked like - just a simpler time. "I used to never think about Billboard, but, now, I've started thinking again wondering 'bout whether I think I deserve commercial success, it's running through my mind, sometimes, I really think it would be cool to rewind," Charli sings in the second verse.
Another shining moment from this record is track 11, "Apple", which is a song that she says almost didn't make the album. In an interview with @marg.mp3 on Instagram, Charli called this the unexpected "sleeper hit" and also adding, "I had a lot of people reach out to me about 'Apple', which is cool. Obviously, that track is a little bit sonically different than the rest of the songs on the record and, at first, I was nervous about that. But then it kind of felt, actually, that that is sort of the epitome of BRAT in a way: to kind of throw something unbelievably unexpected just right in your face and, you know, let it thrive."
Since it's release, this song has since become a pretty viral moment for her with the super cute corresponding apple dance, but from the start it has always been one of my favorites from BRAT. On "Apple", she sings about her complicated relationship with her parents and the generational trauma she holds. Once again, she is able to seamlessly blend introspection and the most infectious dance beat produced by Charli, George Daniel, A.G. Cook, and Lotus IV. I said this many times already, but I just never heard a song like this before and I think many people will be able to apply the message of it into their own lives and take something from it. She uses the symbolism of an apple to represent the inherited traits and intergenerational traumas that have been passed down from her parents. "I guess the apple don't fall far from the tree, 'cause I've been looking at you so long now I only see me," she sings in the first line of the song. Charli wants to escape all of it, but finds that she can't escape from herself, so instead has to grow new seeds for future generations.
"I think the apple's rotten right to the core, from all the things passed down from all the apples coming before," she sings in the third verse, which has specifically had a major viral moment on TikTok, "I split the apple down symmetrical lines, and what I find is kinda scary, makes me just wanna drive". It's so funny that Charli has been able to get so many people dancing to a song about intergenerational traumas, but that is just the magic of her music I guess!
While she grapples with her own relationship with her parents, she also explores the idea of becoming a mother herself on track 14."I think about it all the time" is a song that really took me off guard on my first listen. With this song, she is questioning if she is ready to have a baby, if she is running out of time to do so, and if that would also mean she had to give up her career too. "Am I less of a woman if I don’t have a kid? Will I feel like I’ve missed out on my purpose in life? I know we’re not supposed to say that, but it’s this biological and social programming,” she said in an interview with Rolling Stone. Charli opens up about visiting Noonie Bao, her close friend and collaborator, who just had a baby and seeing the ways she is the same as she was before, but still somehow having a completely different perspective and purpose in life. "Same old clothes she wore before, holding her child...and now they both know thesе things that I don't," she sings. Now that Charli has found love herself, she wonders for the first time in her life if/when she should have a baby of her own.
This song breaks down the societal expectations that are placed on women to have it all figured out in life by a certain age, wondering if she is running out of time to do everything she wants to do and will regret missing out on something. It's very akin to Sylvia Plath's fig tree analogy, a symbol for being paralyzed by all of life's choices and all of the different paths one can take. It is very existential and emotionally raw as she tries to think of all of the possible paths she can take in her own life. I never really heard this explored in a song before though, the closest I can think of is "My Baby Wants A Baby" by St. Vincent, but Charli takes a slightly different perspective than that song does. She sings about insecurities around her career and wondering if she should keep doing this, be a 365 party girl forever, or if it's time to settle down. Can she have both? Probably, but she doesn't know that yet.
The perfection of so much of this album lies in the imperfections, especially with this song, which is intentionally heavily autotuned and more spoken-word stream of consciousness thoughts than having any focus on it sounding good in the traditional sense. That is what makes it so great in the first place. It is kind of formatted like a wordy diary entry or texts with friends, which is what a lot of this album is drawn from but is most noticeable with this song. That isn't a negative at all though, so much of this album is about breaking the rules of traditional pop music and continually pushing the boundaries of what the genre could be in a modern sense. The message and thoughts on her mind are so raw and she holds nothing back.
"There’s a lot of pressure on women not to talk about that stuff super openly, especially not in pop music or in music generally; we're supposed to be sexy and free and fun and wild," she told Rolling Stone. Charli plays both roles throughout this entire album, it is fully the ethos of what BRAT is. I think that message is so important an done in a way that is inherently relatable, but not in a self-righteous type of way. She told Vogue Australia a similar sentiment, "There is nothing I hate more in pop music than being preachy. Because I think it’s lame, and I don't think your favorite pop star has the answer. I think they're also just figuring it out. I am a mess, but I sort of make it work."
As a wild contrast, the album ends with the iconic "365", which is a wild hyperpop rave track that I can never get enough of and definitely sounds the best with the volume cranked all the way up. It is actually so funny to listen to this album beginning to end and go from a song like "I think about it all the time" directly into "365" - the track listing is just so genius and again depicts the two sides of Charli so perfectly. Only she can pull off putting a song wondering if she should have a baby back-to-back with another about keying in the matter of a three-minute time span! "Who the fuck are you? I'm a brat when I'm bumpin' that," Charli sings. "Now I wanna hear my track, are you bumpin' that? Till the windows crack, I'll be bumpin' that". "360" and "365" also serve as the perfect bookends for the album as she makes BRAT an endless loop and a never-ending party.
Although "365" is the final song on the standard edition of the album, brat summer has just been the gift that has kept on giving! Please, we need brat fall, brat winter and brat spring next! Shortly after the album was released, Charli put out the deluxe version titled brat and it's the same, but there's three more songs, so it's not - which is possibly one of the best album titles ever. She's nothing if not straightforward! These three songs are really great additions to the album and I love that she released them so soon after the standard BRAT.
One of the most underrated tracks from this entire project is definitely "Hello goodbye". It often gets overlooked in the midst of the other two massive songs from the deluxe album, but I love that it feels like a continuation of "Talk talk".
"Guess" is a fun and sexy song that she worked on with rising New York-based producer The Dare. It very much fits into the universe of both BRAT and The Dare's solo music too, with it being very wild and explicit party music. She sings, "You wanna guess the color of my underwear, really wanna know what I got goin on down there". It's very playful lyrically and seamlessly blends both of the distinct New York and London club cultures into one. The song was only made even better by the surprise remix featuring Billie Eilish, which similarly to her remix with Lorde, was a massive song this summer. Just as I said with the "Girl, so confusing" remix, these feel like real, cultural moments for the fans. I could have never guessed Billie would have featured on a song like this, but somehow that makes it all even better - they are the duo I never knew I needed but am so happy exists!
"Guess" is so different than anything Billie has ever made and somehow it suits her so perfectly. It is also so rare for her to collaborate with other artists and producers, so this was so cool to see her and Finneas experiment a bit on this track. Billie is so brat and I was very happy to see her be a part of this record too, every song she is a part of is just such a masterpiece. She matches Charli's energy so perfectly on her verse as she sings, "Don't have to guess the color of your underwear, already know what you've got goin' on down there". One of the most iconic lines of the remix is, "Charli likes boys, but she knows I'd hit it," at the end of Billie's verse, "Charli, call me if you're with it". Again, it is all just meant to be very funny and playful and so unserious - which are all of the reasons why it's so great! This album and all of the subsequent remixes have just been genuinely iconic, so well thought out and executed. It's not gimmicky, manufactured music that is just for the charts - all of the BRAT remixes are amazing examples of artists coming together fully for the art of it all and nothing else. Again, that is so rare and such a joy to see as a fan.
My favorite of the three bonus tracks is the final song, "Spring Breakers". I have been obsessed ever since she first played it at her first Boiler Room set in New York long before the album was released and I couldn't wait to play the studio version on repeat. I was disappointed when it wasn't announced to be on the track list of the standard album, but knew it was only a matter of time until this song was officially released. Thankfully we didn't need to wait too long for it! It is such an iconic way to end the album, simply just for how crazy it is for a pop star to be making a song like this in the first place. It takes influence from the 2012 film of the same name, while also sampling "Everytime" by Britney Spears, a song that fittingly also played a major role in that film. The energy is so wild and so brat in the most insanely unhinged way. "Hi, it's me, you're all in danger, never get invited 'cause I'm such a hater, got my finger on the detonator, crazy girl shit, gonna go Spring Breakers," she sings in the iconic opening chorus. She is poking fun at The Grammy's snubbing her every year, likely due to her blunt refusal to play into the game The Recording Academy wants artists to play to get nominated.
She threatens to "go Spring Breakers" if she doesn't get nominated this year - "I poured a load of gasoline on the carpet, lit a cigarette, took a drag, then I just flicked it, place went boom, boom, boom, boom, clap," she sings in the first verse. There is no chance of this happening, but how insane would it be if she performed "Spring Breakers" at The Grammy's!? I need to see that happen! Not that it really matters anyway, but while on the topic, there is no way The Grammy's would be able to ignore BRAT at the next ceremony in the way they have every song she ever made after "Fancy", right? I wouldn't put it past them, but that would probably be the worst snub of the year if they did.
"On the flip side, I could talk real, real nice, maybe if you give me that prize, you might see a tear from my eye, might change my whole damn life," she switches up in the second verse, "I'd maybe thank God on the stage, yeah, I swear I'd be so nice, no, I'd never misbehave". This song is just so quintessentially Charli to me and it was the perfect way to officially close out the album. It is wild, unhinged pop perfection and I'm so obsessed with it!
Charli xcx presents herself with this very confident attitude, but BRAT sets off to show another side of her too. Both sides are still very much her, which she does such a great job at showcasing in this record. BRAT is so unique because it is a club record that simultaneously goes really deep in her introspection and more specifically as an analysis of the complicated female experience. She tackles the complexities of being a woman, finding love, navigating friendships, feminism, processing grief, career insecurities, and so much more on this album in a way that I have never heard presented in such a way before. She takes the listener to really unexpected places throughout, in a way that only Charli could ever pull off.
I love that she has always had such a clear, distinct vision for what she want her art to be. BRAT is not only a fantastic album, but also simultaneously has this incredible movement around it that is both meticulously crafted and naturally occurring in such a unique way. Charli has such an uncompromised artistic vision in her work that few could ever compare to. Everyone that has been a part of this album is truly in it for the love and appreciation of the art they create and that has been so exciting to witness. That passion most importantly shines through the entirety of BRAT.
Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below! May brat summer live forever & ever! 💚
Photo Credit: Charli XCX, Harley Weir, Atlantic Records
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