CHARLI XCX - BRAT
photo credit: harley weir
When once upon a time the warm sunlit eves of 1967 was the Summer Of Love, 2024's sizzling blue skies have been christened the Summer Of brat thanks to London-princess Charli XCX. Born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, the singer-songwriter has lately fixed up her signing with major pop label Atlantic Records with the first record born from this new partnership, brat, taking a big juicy bite out of billboards as a tooth-gemmed-punk hyperpop pilgrimage that would make Vivienne Westwood proud.
Introducing brat with ‘Von dutch’, a spiritual successor to both the electronica-pop of ‘Speed Drive’ from Greta Gerwig's Barbie and the rock-and-roll of 2022's CRASH, the records lead single is packed with gooey, luminescent synths, and space-craft revolving chrome digital keys which boasts the same eternal, always-morphing, cool-girl, cult-classic style seen across all of her projects.
Basking in her well-deserved accomplishments, ‘360’ pridefully, yet also bragfully, name-drops femme culture-makers that inspire and motivate her own artistry. Whilst detailing her journey here and the personal strength needed to have come this far, the stripped back track demonstrates Aitchison’s mastery over electronica, all polished off by a somersaulting bass drum and champagne jewelled synth-drops. “I went my own way and I made it,” she boasts in the first verse. “I'm your favorite reference, baby.”
Learning from her experimental collaboration with hyperpop's head angel SOPHIE, ‘Club classics’ is a track dripping in iridescent synths, warping digital-washboard splatters, puzzle pieces of spoken-word lyrics, and earthquake-booming bass drums bellowing at the choruses that begs for a live audience. “Put your hands up and dance,” she commands. “Yeah, I’m gonna dance all night, that’s right / All night, never gonna stop ‘til the morning light.”
Despite the moments of glorious chaos, there are moments on brat where Aitchison is at her most vulnerable. ‘Sympathy is a knife’ holds the artists vulnerability to being seen as worthy of respect and comparison to those whom she admires whereas the enchanting, softly-lilting ‘I might say something stupid’ is under two minutes of reflection. The former being an intimate look at the matter, investigated through performance on her last album, that draws upon CRASH with its pulsating heavy metal synths, and guttural, echoing bass drums.
At brat's first act’s end, ‘Everything is romantic’ weaves the needle to lace together Aitchison’s sincere appreciation for finding beauty in unlikely places, such as a Southern ghost town, a cheap motel's old bedding, and a biker's faint tattoo, with the dangers of poets and artists' bestowing romance upon suffering. The awestruck track relies on its heavy use of repetition and the music’s calm to chaotic pace, switching between Hollywood swoon and club funk, mirrors the idea of changing based on location. “Early nights in white sheets with lace curtains,” she repeats twice in both verses. “Pompeii in the distance / In a place that can make you change.”
Dripping in nostalgia, brat hails all things female. Where ‘Rewind’ adapts CRASH’s strategy of understanding popstars and the criticism of women in the industry, ‘Girl, so confusing’ and ‘Mean girls’ find Aitchison heralding female friendships, celebrating them for all they are worth. Dipping her toes back into the early years of her career in terms of soundscape, ‘Girl, so confusing’ is angelically luminescent, shimmering with rose quartz piano keys, deep amethyst cymbals, and a tender, driving bass drum. The fan-favourite track fearlessly speaks on the kaleidoscope of emotions that spark up and arise out of female friendships. “Yeah, I don’t know if you like me / Sometimes I think you might hate me,” she confesses. “Sometimes I think I might hate you / Maybe you just wanna be me.”
As brat winds down, Aitchison makes a sharp turn. ‘I think about it all the time’ lists her desires and fears, embodied by the stylophone’s falling stars and gilded-gold synths, whereas ‘365’ lavishes another day of freedom, focusing on the genuine joy experienced from a party girl lifestyle. The latter somehow feels more organic after listening to the whole record. It certifies that Aitchison is a veteran in making 2000s-inspired club classics; as a whole, acts as a reminder that we’re all human and deserve a good time here and there. To put it simply, if there’s one thing brat has done right, it’s capture the reality of being human amidst all the fame and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
cat joy
★★★★★