“BRAT” was released on June 7, 2024, by English musician Charli XCX (Charlotte Emma Aitchison). It’s her sixth studio album, produced by George Daniel, A. G. Cook, El Guincho, EASYFUN, Charli XCX, and others.
This high-octane electronic dance-pop record diverges from her previous discography. It was teased in February, generating hype from hopeful fans and critics and repeating the acclaim of 2022’s “Crash.” “BRAT” features profound lyrics of self-reflection on Charli’s career and her experiences with the music industry and media.
Charli XCX’s initial mainstream popularity stemmed from her collaborative works with rapper Iggy Azalea on the song “Fancy” and pop duo Icona Pop on “I Love It.” “Boom Clap,” a song from her studio album “Sucker,” was also a success and was featured in the soundtrack of the 2014 film “The Fault in Our Stars.”
At the same time, her music became successful in the UK’s underground dance clubs. Still, she remained a primarily underground artist as her Billboard charting has only ever reached as high as 63 on the Hot 100 in the years following the collaborations. However, the album “BRAT” has changed that with its beautiful and exciting collection of such bumping EDM, ready to be blasted at your next party or on your car speakers.
The first lead single from the album was February’s “Von dutch,” a reference to a 2000s clothing brand of the same name. It’s a stellar example of Charli’s underground style beyond her pop accomplishments from years past. “Von Dutch” was the first song Charli teased on TikTok, playing in the background of a label party.
Another tease occurred during a session at the New York Boiler Room, where Charli XCX and producers A.G. Cook and Finn Keane ended the night with a snippet of the single. A few days after the event, the single dropped on Feb. 28 on all platforms.
It’s my favorite track on the album due to its aggressively catchy and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, which I adore. Charli perfectly captures her unique attitudes in one song, making it an outlier to her many contemporaries. The track sounds like the dark strobe lights of a densely packed club, with a pulsing beat and industrial environment. Being the lead single, it couldn’t have been more perfect as an introduction.
The following lead single and opening track was “360,” released on May 10 as a surprise drop.
The style of “360” takes a more fashionista approach with a pop-centric musical structure. Charli references multiple celebrities and puts you in the high-heeled shoes of imagining yourself as models Gabbriette, actress Julia Fox, and co-producer A.G. Cook. The song creates a sonic environment where the listener is preparing for a high-fashion photoshoot but with zero care about how others will view them, as they are “lookin’ like an icon.”
“Club classics,” a stand-out in the album, was released on April 3 as a double single with “B2b”, co-produced by Cook and Charli’s fiancé, George Daniel. The song is the quintessential club jam and an homage to early EDM tracks that reflect Charli’s history in the genre. When discussing the music on the Tape Notes Podcast, she reflected on the conceptualization when she was with Daniel, saying, “I really want to do this song called Club Classics where I talk about everyone’s music I like to hear when I go out.” The song uses repetitive and bass-heavy distortion to create a unique yet entertaining compilation. It’s much simpler than the rest of the tracks but still packs a good deal of punch to your listening experience and allows audiences to enjoy the unique sampling of an undisclosed interview, which is the backing beats.
The fourth and shortest track is a divergence from the party anthems, titled “I might say something stupid.” While speaking to Jake Shane on his series, Therapuss, Charli said that the album is so “bitchy” and “direct,” which can turn into moments of vulnerability.
The song tackles some that form a dichotomy about being a big enough name yet intensely insecure about staying an underground artist. Her time in the mainstream starlight was short, and as the song puts it, she has “onе foot in a normal life.” However, it’s also frustrating as she wishes to expand her audience. Being in the shadow of her much older hits does feel familiar to many people and artists trapped by old perceptions.
She describes the album as a form of “lashing out” by unleashing all her pent-up resentment and anxiety into a party-fueled rager, which is why the softness of “I might say something stupid” fits perfectly as a moment of vulnerability while listening to the party-like nature of the album. One can relate to the song’s message of struggling with social expectations. Sometimes, you feel like you want to lash out, scream into nothing, or go on a bender when things get too rough around you, so this song feels like a welcome wind-down and one track I return to when I need a quiet moment.
One track that stands out as the most gut-wrenching is “So I,” a painfully sad yet wonderfully made dedication to the late producer and past collaborator with Charli, SOPHIE, who prematurely died after a fall in 2021. It’s more sympathetic than “I might say something stupid” because Charli executes regret for mistreating someone you held close to, only for them to leave or, worse, pass away suddenly.
A deluxe version with three extra songs was released on June 10, named “Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not.” The tracks include “Hello goodbye,” a pretty, high-tempo dance pop with lyrics referencing mental falling in love, but it’s somewhat weaker than a similar album track like “B2b.”
“Guess” is as hypersexual as it is a techno hyper-pop beat. It’s a direct homage to the legendary French EDM duo Daft Punk by utilizing the beat sampled from their hit “Technologic.” It is the best track from the deluxe version and should be. Recommend if you want to bounce up and down to in-depth descriptions of pillow talk. It, too, belongs on Deluxe because it’s much more explicit, but it’s still a foolish and humorous song you should hear, an experience indeed.
“BRAT” is an excellent summer album to add to your playlist. It lives up as a club banger, and it lives up to the actual club classics of Daft Punk. “BRAT” is her most cultivated and hardest-hitting album yet and deserves the highest of recommendations if you love EDM but also for new listeners who want to have a taste of the scene.
Connor Moody is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the summer 2024 quarter. He can be reached at cwmoody@uci.edu.
Edited by Alaina Retodo, Jaheem Conley.
