It’s four a.m. and she struts down the street in a sheer white dress, last night’s makeup and a cigarette sits between her fingers, a Bic lighter in her other hand. She’s trashy, obsessive, and an absolute mess. She’s the Internet’s favorite it-girl. She’s brat.
Charli XCX has been the talk of the town lately. Though she’s been around since the past decade, and responsible for many pop hits of the 2010s (Icona Pop’s “I love it,” her own “Boom Clap” in 2014, and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”), most of the general public has struggled to put a face to her music.
That is, until her sixth album, “brat.” An album of many emotions, hyperpop synths and club-inspired tracks, “brat” is most defined by its horrid, yet desirable green. It goes by multiple names, depending on who you ask — “slime green” and “brat green” are a few of many. British Vogue called it “a putrid inbetween… It is the color of toxic waste and infographic viruses and synthetic fruit flavorings and plastic astroturf.” Yet brat is more than just a color. Brat is an attitude, a lifestyle, one that Charli XCX seems to lead–bold, crazy and unapologetically herself.
“360,” the opening track is dedicated to the Internet’s favorite it-girls. “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia,” Charli sings, a shout-out to none other than Julia Fox. In the music video, Charli and her it-girl posse (which includes model Gabbriette, influencer Emma Chamberlain, and actresses Rachel Sennott and Chloe Sevigny) gather for a dinner party, in which they crash cars and dance in stark hospital rooms.
“Von Dutch,” which stands amongst the ranks of the other club-inspired tracks on the album, “B2B” and “Club Classics,” is self-obsessed and bold. “It’s obvious I’m your number one / It’s alright to admit I’m the fantasy,” she sings.
“Mean girls” is for all the bad, “break-your-boyfriend’s-heart” and “tearing-shit-apart” girls. Not only is it cleverly written — opening with a vivid description of a Lana Del Rey worshiping “mean girl” (Hedonistic with the gravel, drawing dead eyes / You say she’s anorexic and you heard she likes it when people say it”), it is also ingeniously composed. It features a jazz piano interlude, though strange, works surprisingly well — that layers into the last chorus, and takes it from a solid track to fantastic.
While the surface and marketing of “brat” only projects an unhinged and “YOLO” image, the album is so much more than that. “Brat” is less like a multilayered onion, though it is that too, and more so a constant 180, back and forth. One moment she’s “Von Dutch,” and the next she’s ready to “Rewind,” back to a time when she wasn’t so insecure. The juxtaposition is blatant and intentional, declaring that Charli isn’t afraid to show her vulnerability — if anything she’s just as eager to, as much so as she is DJ-ing in underground clubs.
In “brat,” Charli is painfully candid. She sings about insecurity and imposter syndrome at a star-studded party in “I might say something stupid,” and inescapable, plaguing jealousy of another woman in “Sympathy is a knife,” a sharp and twisted track. “So I,” is worth a mention too, a heartbreaking homage to Charli’s late friend and mentor, SOPHIE, a producer who pioneered pushing the boundaries of pop and hyperpop.
There is also a hidden theme that runs through brat like a strand of thin string: family. “Apple” — which has the entire Internet in the palm of its hand — though a fun, playful song with a good beat, it speaks of generational trauma through witty apple metaphors. In “Everything is romantic,” after lines of picturesque Italian summerside, Charli sings, “Four generations make up a family,” a subtle reference to the closeness of Italian families.
“I think about it all the time,” may be the clearest example of this. An offbeat, almost intentionally awkward track, of uncertainty and doubt, Charli reevaluates her life decisions after visiting friends who recently became parents. She asks in a monotone voice, one that many have asked before, “Should I stop my birth control? / ‘Cause my career seems so small in the existential scheme of it all.”
“Brat” is both Charli XCX’s evolution and revolution. Her sound has shapeshifted again and again over the years — but “brat” is the perfect medium, between the experimental and the mainstream. It’s all-encompassing — it covers the deepest and arguably shallowest parts of her life, all in one album. The best part? Charli is unapologetic till the very end about every single part. Of course, in true brat fashion.
