brat
Charli XCX
2024

Monoculture is fried. That’s rarely more apparent than looking at the Billboard Hot 100, where I’ve tracked Chappell Roan slowly clawing her way since May toward the top 10, which has for weeks now been a few songs I’ve heard a lot (“Not Like Us”, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”, “Birds of a Feather”) and the “different America” country of Morgan Wallen, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims. There’s a Hozier song, “Too Sweet,” that’s been lodged there for weeks, and I’ve had conversations joking about Hozier that never mention it (it’s pretty good!) Songs by major artists like Cardi B, Doja Cat, and Travis Scott seem to hide on the charts for months without me ever knowing they exist.

The friends I have who do keep up with new releases are largely hooked on Chappell Roan, Four Tet, or Charli XCX’s new album brat, the last of which has so far peaked outside the top 40 with the Lorde remix of “Girl, so confusing.” It’s not bizarre that Charli XCX isn’t a chart-topper – it’s actually incredibly impressive that her arena tour is selling out 70% of all tickets given her previous sales history. But “The Algorithm” (or, more accurately, the four or five different algorithms) is feeding me new takes and memes on brat daily. It’s the biggest album since Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. if you’re on My Internet.

Part of that is that I’m queer. Charli’s association with hyperpop artists like SOPHIE, 100 gecs, and Rina Sawayama keeps Charli front of mind for queer pop music despite being straight herself. Among gay icons, she’s quite different from the more wholesome discopop yearning of Carly Rae Jepsen (straight,) the ethereal otherworldliness of Bjork (undefined), or the relatable fanfiction decoding of Taylor Swift (despite what the Gaylors will tell you, straight as far as we know.) Her music is about driving fast, doing party drugs, and having good sex – at least, when it’s not about the comedown.

Executive producer A.G. Cook anchors a dance-forward collection of electronic beats alongside a host of collaborators, including Hudson Mohawke, Easyfun, Gesaffelstein, and Charli’s fiance George Daniel. Some of it is on the accessible, dancy side, like the city walk friendly “360” where Charli declares she’s “so Julia.” It’s unsurprising that “Apple” has gone viral on Tiktok given its bouncy vocals and the delightful trip to the airport in the hook. Other songs are down in the pit, like the driving beat of “Club classics” or the groove of “B2b.” brat is cohesive without being repetitive, ensuring something like the piano riff at the end of “Mean girls” or the harmonies on the hook of “Talk talk” create a texture for listening through the full album.

What makes brat so remarkable is its more emotional side – and I actually don’t think it’s consistent throughout the album. Songs like “Sympathy is a knife” and “I might say something stupid” match similar songs on Charli (2019) and how i’m feeling now, somewhat abstract about an emotional experience, expressing something that marries style and substance. This is a traditional pop vulnerability, as it expresses a relatable feeling with a very pointed form of artistry. “Sympathy is a knife” and the album closer “365” are probably the most obvious instant classics from the album on the more serious side.

It’s in the back half, opening up with “So I”, that Charli abandons abstraction entirely. Charli’s elegy for SOPHIE is incredibly direct about their relationship, emotionally vulnerable about how Charli actually wasn’t always an especially good friend, vulnerable about not wanting to sing the songs that survived. It maybe never gets more startling than on “I think about it all the time,” a bouncy, delightful melody very explicitly about Charli meeting her friends’ baby and questioning her career against opportunity for motherhood. This isn’t dressed up poetically, isn’t guarded in platitudes. It’s more direct than most people would be with their own therapist. The “Girl, so confusing” remix with Lorde defusing their “beef” and hearing Lorde just as directly address their relationship and her own battle with fame and anorexia exposes just how radical this style feels.

When people describe lyrics as “anecdotal,” they usually just mean that they describe an experience you can relate to – that story is still usually told using the rhetorical devices of storytelling, with entertaining jokes, clever rhymes, strong imagery. They do not usually just involve phrases like “She’s a radiant mother and he’s a beautiful father/And now they both know these things that I don’t” to end verses. It’s beyond conversational, because if you had a conversation with someone this unguarded you’d usually be uncomfortable. This kind of radical transparency isn’t 100% new, especially as you dig into album-oriented artists’ deep cuts. But even within the context of a great pop album like brat, it feels revolutionary. If brat is an all-timer (it’s been a month, folks – I’m not ready to commit to that yet!) it’ll be one that marks transition into an authenticity you can’t mistake for another submission from the tortured poet’s department.

KEY TRACKS: “Sympathy is a Knife,” “Girl, so confusing,” “I think about it all the time,” “365”
VERSION: the three more songs so it’s not version – the three songs are all really good!
CATALOG CHOICE: Vroom Vroom, Charli
NEXT STOP: 1000 gecs, 100 gecs
AFTER THAT: Chris, Christine and the Queens