“brat” – Charli xcx

Album: brat

Artist: Charli XCX

Year: 2024

Genre: Electropop, Experimental Pop

Grade: A

The ugly album cover — four letters of stretched out and unassuming Arial Narrow over a lurid lime green background — is perfect packaging for Charli xcx’s 2024 album Brat, which is filled with repetitive, minimalist, materialistic pop so dumb that it’s actually clever.

Charli has always been ahead of the curve; an artist who sets trends long before everyone else catches on. And that’s why Brat is such an intriguing study in contrasts: an album that is all-encompassing in its stripped-back approach; hyperpop music without the maximalism. Because of Brat‘s beguiling sound, we’re bound to see more artists embrace simplicity in the coming years, though very few can successfully pull off irony like Charli does here.

Through straightforward melodies, emotionless EDM backing tracks and seemingly vapid lyrics that luxuriate in brainless rave culture clichés, Charli creates a highly addictive substance that is impossible to shake. On further inspection, however, things are much deeper and more intricate than they initially appear. It’s the best album of her career.

Her colorless songs about party life (“Club Classics,” “Von Dutch,” “Apple,” “365,” etc.) are sung with such nonchalance that they become confessional, which then makes the actual confessionals (“I Might Say Something Stupid” and “I Think About It All the Time”) hit that much harder. Meanwhile, the industrial beats carry a punk rock edge, which become cathartic in their spare cynicism, much like Kanye West’s Yeezus or Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red. And just like those influential classics, the initial off-putting nature of Brat becomes intellectually stimulating in a surreal, desensitized way.

Brat is Charli’s grandest statement yet; an album destined to become a touchstone. Over the course of 15 songs in 42 minutes, we’re given a tour of the ubiquitous future of pop music, one that is unique in its sameness, a journey that feels wide-ranging but only takes us from “360” to “365.” And rather than try to explain why Brat is a contradictory work of genius guaranteed to stand the test of time, let’s just admit that the music sounds great and immediate in the here and now.

NOTES & CHORDS

• Brat took a little while to grow on me, and I was initially hesitant to give the album a higher grade. On first listen it started as a B+, a few more spins and I moved it to an A-, until I finally settled with a Grade-A “classic” that I feel confident in. However, this seems to be the case with all Charli’s albums: music fans all over the world are still slowly coming around on Charli (2019) and How I’m Feeling Now (2020). Brat has garnered more instant acclaim than any of her past releases, but I predict that it too will grow in stature in the coming years.

• The introspective ballads are perfectly sequenced; brilliant comedowns after the drug-fueled party bangers. For instance, because of the club chaos that comes before it, “So I” becomes a touching moment of clarity.

• The metallic techno music that accompanies every song is the obvious highlight of the album, but it’s worth noting how perfectly Charli’s voice fits right in. Her vocals are filled with emotion, albeit restrained, which serves as a suitable counter for Brat‘s electronic aesthetic.

---