On the heels of Charli XCX’s recently released “Brat” album, which on one hand has found instant internet popularity, there remains a handful of people who view the singer pop-obsessed underground protégé who drools over the commercial success of Britney Spears’ “good-girl-gone-bad” catalog, and the late SOPHIE’s slippery-slick production. However, the major-label artist has been materializing an unprecedented soundscape since the release of her 2016 crossover project, aptly titled “Vroom Vroom,” and through the course of her 10-year journey down the hyperpop rabbit hole, has all but transformed from cookie-cutter chart-toppers (think 2014’s “Boom Clap”) to predicting the next music phenomenon on 2017’s “Pop 2” LP.
Still, no matter the Coachella gigs, Times Square billboards, or Marc Jacobs ambassadorships, pop radio has, until now, neglected to legitimize Charli’s PC Music co-creations. Paired with uptight interviews that fail to capture the 31-year-old’s bubbalicious-flavored fantasy, the media substituted brimming geniusness for disordered club music — as if the mere cohesion, her long-admitted MO, is a downright shame. “Labels are desperate for artists to be liked, otherwise you’re bad, evil and wrong,” Charli recently told The Guardian. When the subversive self-titled 2019 LP “Charli” and the pandemic release of “how i’m feeling now” also failed to accumulate any mainstream relevance, the English pop star caved, yet again, to palatability (or at least an attempt at it) with the 2022 LP “Crash.” While the singer regretted the project’s inauthenticity in an interview with The Face, it’s ultimately what unearthed Charli’s potential to become a “main” pop girl, with the only the only hurdle being achieving superstardom while maximizing both her It-girl essence and candy-lacquered, heavy-handed club anthems.
Enter Charli’s new album, “Brat”: a blunt, neon green snapshot that first lit up an abandoned Brooklyn warehouse, where PARTYGIRL, Charli’s DJ persona, unleashed a full-scale pop assault of inescapable synths – supported by producers A.G. Cook and EASYFUN – and celeb-riddled shoutouts for her debut Boiler Room set. Since her December single, “Von Dutch,” the first taste of “Brat” was the opposite of ear candy; it was unapologetically abrasive. As subsequent singles followed, including the Vroom Vroom-ification of “Club Classics” and the It-girl-studded music video for “360,” the world finally caught up to Charli, packaging “Brat” as the antithesis of Hot Girl Summer — an ode to raver kids who swear their music taste is obscure when it’s really Björk.
“Brat” is a loud record just from its bold-colored artwork alone. Stylized in all lowercase, “Brat” has grit, flaking at its edges until the noisy green covers the imperfect bezels. Color-filled in protest of the misogynistic demand for access to women’s bodies on album artwork, the team transformed the unveiling’s initial outrage into a meme generator that iconized the minimal green-colored artwork, which effectively broadened the project’s multimedia reach. Despite guest remixes from internet pop connoisseurs Addison Rae, Robyn, and The Dare, they were just the beginning of the “Brat” lore, an endeavor that’s pure XCX, with no extra features interrupting the tracklist.
Charli traded TODAY Show specials with Hoda Kotb and “this is my most personal record” anecdotes for digital nostalgia mixed with TikTok-verified guerilla marketing tactics. The mood board consists of Britney Spears’s impromptu outings with Paris Hilton during 2007’s “Blackout” era, crunchy MySpace producer tags, controversial subway takes with Kareem Rahma and obnoxious paparazzi flash photography. The latter became reality as Brooklyn natives flooded the streets upon her surprise performance at The Lot Radio in Greenpoint, with goers dubbing her “The Michael Jackson of Bushwick.”
Now, with “Brat” having bested Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” for the most critically acclaimed album of 2024 and debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200, it’s safe to say Charli is her own favorite reference. The standard edition album’s 43 minutes stumbles fiercely through neoteric melodic structures, texting short-handed lyrics and self-adoring exclamations, and falls down throbbing bass notes with intoxicating reverb. Though even the highest highs sober into an existential comparison game, showcased in tracks “Sympathy Is A Knife, ”I Might Say Something Stupid” and “Girl, So Confusing,” it perfectly juxtaposes insecure pop-star ruminations with the five-star production.
While the deluxe additions of ‘Guess” and “Spring Breakers” remain essential listens, “Brat” is more than cool dance music with genius marketing. It’s a forced-to-be underground artist finally getting her mainstream flowers. A chick known for her unruly party habits, cherry topped with her exclusive LA house parties, making a record dedicated to nightlife glamor, sweating on Paul’s Casablanca dance floor, and crying over bygone times after one too many vodka cranberries? It’s a vibe that Camila Cabello and Katy Perry are already adopting for their new eras. But Charli has been living that life.
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