Brat is the sixth studio album released by singer-songwriter Charli XCX. Her career started at the age of fourteen, when she posted demos of her music to her MySpace page. She was first discovered by somebody who was illegally running warehouse raves in London and was invited to perform at them.
Charli rose to stardom by producing experimental pop music. For most of her life, she has been a powerhouse in the pop industry.
Her hits are all songs you’ve likely heard of, such as “Boom Clap” from The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack, “Boys”, “Speed Drive” from the Barbie movie soundtrack, “Vroom Vroom”, “I Love It” and “Fancy”, her first and only number-one hit, with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.
On the album Brat, Charli highlights many issues that she has never highlighted in her previous works. Particularly, she addresses imposter syndrome, body image issues, regret over losing a loved one, generational trauma, and the effect of how women in the music industry are often pitted against one another. She has also collaborated with many other pop icons on the album, including Billie Eilish, Lorde, A.G. Cook, Addison Rae, and Troye Sivan, with whom she has started on the Sweat tour.
The album cover, in its neon-green, Arial-font entirety, has faced a lot of backlash from critics and social media influencers alike. But Charli made it look that way on purpose, as a statement to the people who think they have the right to see and control women’s bodies. The green on the cover is also supposed to represent the music industry, whose focus on green money has always determined which albums are released.
Brat has also caught the attention of the political landscape. When Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, he left Kamala Harris as the main choice for the Democratic nominee. Charli famously tweeted, “kamala IS brat”, and Harris’ publicity team saw that this tweet was gaining a lot of traction and decided to run with it.
News outlets, like Fox News, were very confused by this. They kept asking the question “What is brat?” They even brought on someone to explain the whole spiel to them on air. Lines were thrown out like, “You don’t understand the essence of brat summer,” “You take away the A,” and “Do we really want brats to run this country?” Many people, including myself, found it all quite amusing to watch.
Brat opens with the song titled “360” and ends with the song called “365”, which is a remix of the aforementioned track. The music video for “360” is now considered iconic by many, as it features many “It” girls, such as Emma Chamberlain, Quenlin Blackwell, Rachel Sennot, Hari Nef, Alex Consnani, Julia Fox, and Chloe Sevigny. Charli even mentions Julia Fox in the lyrics, singing, “I’m everywhere. I’m so Julia.” In Fox’s own words, when asked what it means to be “So Julia”, she said it just means being “that girl.”
The track “Girl, So Confusing” highlights how women in the music industry are constantly pitted against one another. Lorde, the Australian singer-songwriter, agreed to perform on this track, and she and Charli have been previously compared to one another many times, even though their music is completely different. They seem to reconcile with one another in this song, admitting how they both felt insecure due to the other artist.
This point is also emphasized in my personal favorite song, “Sympathy Is a Knife”, where Charli describes her feelings for another woman. Many people have speculated this might be about Taylor Swift, because she states that she doesn’t want to see her backstage at her boyfriend’s show. Charli’s now-fiance is the drummer for The 1975, whose lead singer, Matty Healy, briefly dated Swift back in May of 2023.
In the song, Charli admits, “‘Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried. I’m opposite; I’m on the other side.” This last line possibly represents the polar opposite music styles between Charli and Swift.
In the song “Apple”, which you’ve probably seen in your For You Page, Charli writes about generational trauma and how it has affected her. It’s a play on the saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and there are many lyrics in the track that exemplify this truth.
Specifically, Charli sings, “I think the apple’s rotten right to the core, from all the things passed down from all the apples coming before.” She describes herself as a rotten apple, due to the trauma that’s been passed down to her.
In many of Charli’s songs, she mentions driving. We see this in “Apple”, when she admits, “And what I find is kind of scary makes me just wanna drive.” Charli uses driving as a metaphor in her songs as a way of escaping reality. On this track more specifically, she is trying to escape the generational trauma that has been carried down to her.
The track “So I” is about Charli’s late friend and producer, Sophie, who passed away on January 30th, 2021, in her home in Athens, Greece. Charli and Sophie had previously collaborated on many songs together.
In this song, Charli expresses her guilt after Sophie’s death. Most songs that honor someone who has died just constantly praise them. And yet Charli is not afraid to talk about the bad side of grief—the regret you face when a loved one leaves you. She constantly questions herself, because she pushed Sophie away multiple times when she was alive. Charli even explicitly mentions one of Sophie’s songs, “It’s Okay To Cry”.
Overall, Brat is definitely a must-listen album. It’s truly Charli’s best and most well-received work to date. She explores themes never before seen in her earlier discography. Take the measly forty minutes out of your day, and listen to this amazing album that Charli XCX has poured her heart into.
