Charli XCX has always been the opposite of the typical pop star. Her ever-changing, increasingly experimental production choices throughout her career have made her both wholly unique and difficult to market. While artists like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have seen fit to take an OK sound and make it more predictable over time, Charli has always been an exciting star to watch rise because you never know exactly what you’ll get. Will you get the revved up, hyped up, PC Music-produced Number 1 Angel, the Billboard ready SUCKER and Crash, or a feature-laden, fan service hit parade like Charli? She takes the term “era” very seriously, and her fans love to debate which “era” is the very best.
Well, I’m happy to report that with BRAT, we are getting thee definitive, raw and uncompromised Charli style. Like I predicted earlier this year, this is her very best album, but also the album of the year.
Before you get all enraged and pissy, let me explain my criteria. What I want out of a Charli album is stellar, club ready production, with AG Cook preferably being the head chef. I want choruses and melodies that are insanely catchy, and synths and autotune that guide the vocals perfectly. I want lyrics that are personal enough so that I further understand her as a person, but not too personal that they’re not relatable. I don’t care particularly care for features, unless it’s someone that perfectly locks in with her (i.e. Troye Sivan, Caroline Polachek, Dorian Electra). I want deep cuts that take me from single to single gracefully, and I want a nice opening and closing track. BRAT delivers on all of these points and much more.
Before I dive more into the thematic content of the record, I just want to recognize this stacked roster of producers, who each get standout moments. AG Cook is the obvious thread throughout, making this album a real PC Music return to form. We also get real veterans of the genre like Hudson Mohawke, EASYFUN and Gesaffelstein, as well as her fiancee and The 1975 drummer George Daniel. He is another real anchor of this album, being referenced on cuts like “Sympathy is a knife” and co-producing and co-writing the poetic “Apple” and the best single “Club Classics”. “Club Classics” is a nice production thesis overall, shouting out George along with SOPHIE, as well as others who produced on BRAT.
Lyrically and structurally, the album is what The Barbie Movie should’ve been, and I’ll explain. This is a really perfect character piece of a hot, rich it girl between the ages of 21 and 34. It’s an exploration of flaws within the people we consider to be “flawless”. It definitely flexes all of the perks, like on the opener “360”. In the music video, Charli is assisted by all the internet’s faves, including Julia Fox, Chloe Cherry and Gabriette. She brags about being an icon, but also encourages the girlies to love themselves for being unique. You are Rachel Sennot or Richie Shazam, in your own mind so to speak. It’s not all self-love, there are references to suicide and insecurity on “Sympathy is a knife” and “Rewind” respectively, or feeling unwanted on “I think about it all the time”. Elsewhere there are montages of blissful vacations (“Everything is romantic”), K holes (‘365”) and frenemy drama (“Girl, so confusing”). It really captures the glimpses of reflection in between club nights and illicit affairs. If you’re a NYC girl who used to go to Freakquencies at Home Sweet Home every other week, this is your Purple Rain. It speaks directly to them like a conversation, and everyone else is just listening in.
Before I end this review, I’d like to quickly touch on the beating, electric heart of BRAT, and that is the track “So I”. “Always on my mind / You still burn so bright / I was scared sometimes / You had a power like a lightning strike”, no more perfect words have captured SOPHIE’s power. SOPHIE’s infinite creative spirit and musical wisdom truly shaped the world, not just pop music. To me, she was our generation's top artist because she dared to dream, and without her, we would’ve never gotten the Charli we know and love. Her and AG really shaped and guided Charli’s sound throughout the mid-2010s, allowing her to spread her wings and fly away from being the next Bebe Rehxa or Rita Ora. Rigid cultural institutions like The Grammys never had much love for Charli, and SOPHIE caught this early. She saw that as ephemeral, and because of her, Charli will always have that cult fanbase and lasting impact. “So I” was really important and the ex-factor that put this whole record over the edge for me.
BRAT is what I as a Charli fan have been waiting for. It’s the very best Charli XCX project, competing only with her pandemic record how i’m feeling now, which feels like a simulation of the feelings captured here. and the best album of the year so far without a question. The wordiness is the point, the repetition is the point. This is not Crash, this is not SUCKER, this is the studio album that Charli wanted to make, front to back to back to back to back.
