Charli XCX is at her best when she's doing whatever the fuck she wants.
Think of the undistilled master-at-work-ery that fills her beloved 2017 mixtape '
Pop 2' and five-week 2020 lockdown creation '
how i'm feeling now'. Those projects always felt simultaneously like her loosest, offering up complete artistic freedom and a borderless approach to pop music, and her tightest, cutting through any bullshit to deliver an in-your-face instant cult classic.
That energy saturates 'BRAT', her sixth studio album, released via Atlantic to the surprise of anyone who's followed her tumultuous relationship with the label. Her last full-length, 2022's '
Crash', saw Charli toy with the idea of going as mainstream as possible, blowing up the budget and that version of Charli in the process. 'BRAT', despite settling back into Charli's preferred position in the underground, isn't the complete opposite in its mission.
'BRAT' is still hedonistic, screaming for attention and knowing she'll get it. Its first few offerings - 'Von dutch', 'Club classics', '360' - are cocky and cunty, projecting themes of obsession, pride, vanity. Lyrics like "cult classic but I still pop" in lead single 'Von Dutch' allude to the ways Charli straddles the mainstream and underground pop worlds and always has done (see 2023's 'Speed Drive', made for the Barbie soundtrack with PC Music alum EasyFun and sampling Robyn's 'Cobrastyle', while still breaking the Top 10), while the pure arrogance of "I wanna dance to me" in 'Club classics' doubles down on the tone of this era. Kicking off the whole record is the line "I went my own way and I made it, I'm your favourite reference", but all of these songs serve as a facade, and the rest of 'BRAT' tells a different story.
