Charli threw this party for us <3

Here are my informal thoughts on Brat & Charli XCX.

I listened to brat/BRAT (henceforth referred to as Brat, ty) on a coastal drive at sunset and it was completely the wrong vibe. To be fair, the wild grass on the hillside to my left did glisten in the sun and give off that characteristic bright green hue, so it was like, this should be going off right now. Like, the grass is giving brat. But something wasn’t right! It was visual trickery. Honestly, what was I thinking? I should not have been bumpin’ that in such close proximity to horses and lobster rolls.

Brat is a party, a midnight snack, a rendezvous. At its core, the decibels are not meant for sober daylight, they are too heavy, too nasty (bro, A.G. Cook has been a ~nasty girl~ in the studio). You get it! I listened again with all of this mind and swear to god, briefly levitated. And now that I’ve broken the seal… everything has changed. I can listen to Brat at 9 AM on my way to work like it’s nothing, babe. Should I do a little—?

The truth is, it was inevitable. Charli XCX has always been THE party. The first time I saw her perform live was back in 2013 on tour with Marina & the Diamonds. She opened for her at the Shrine Auditorium in LA. I remember the stark contrast of Charli’s tank top and ripped tights to Marina’s Chanel-inspired costumes, pink heart drawn on the cheek. Charli stood alone on stage, no dancers no set, to a room full of not-yet but soon-to-be fans and within minutes had us all jumping. She ended her set then the same way she still does now. Cue: “I Love It” by Charli XCX, not Icona Pop.

Nothing makes me want to set my N95 3M Aura on fire more than this fucking album. Culture needs to party again!!! I’m thinking party as resistance, party as riot, party as community. Party to disrupt and party to release. Brat begs the question: what if we had fun? What if, despite the mess, mistakes, and anxiety, we had some actual fun? Charli opens the album: “I went my own way and I made it.” Brat is a formal invitation into her world, one that she’s crafted (and occasionally pivoted from) since her first record True Romance. We all likely know the story by now. Miss XCX floated from the London rave girl inspired production to more commercial syncable pop, back to the fringe in collaboration with PC Music’s A.G. Cook and Sophie, then turned back to the pop-star drawing board and tried her hand at the mainstream again with Crash.

But here’s what’s been obvious to mega fans like myself since the beginning: the fringe is her platform to the mainstream. No one is doing it like her! It was never about changing her sound to invite the masses. The masses had to be ready to receive. She clearly knows this now, “I’m your favorite reference, baby”. And thank god for that. Is Brat kind of a lesson in going to therapy? I must give in to my very strong urge to quote a Tik Tok meme: to be cringe is to be free. Might have to get that written in elaborate cursive on my lower back. #TrampStampEra.

The especially special aspect of Brat is Charli’s willingness to match her newly enhanced confidence with glimpses into her inner world, giving context to this trajectory. Take the aforementioned mirror lyric from “360” for example. Just a couple tracks after on the record, during “i might say something stupid”, she reveals an insecurity that almost directly undercuts that very idea: “Talk to myself in the mirror / I look perfect in the background”. Luckily for us, it doesn’t end there. Give it two more tracks and we’re back at “Von Dutch”, where she boasts, “It’s so obvious / I’m your number one”. Yes you are, South Asian sister. Number one angel, baby.

Therein lies the magic. Charli convincing herself is exactly what’s convincing everybody.

To me, it’s really that simple. Charli is fresh, experimental, playful, and knows how to have a good time. After a whole lot of navel-gazing empowerment pop and sidelong references to what worked in the past, the listening public was primed for this moment. Exhausted from years of calls to action wherein us young and hungries are scrambling to save ourselves from the tyranny of empire, culture is ready to respond to a different call. The call to do bumps, rewind, cut the apple down symmetrical lines, guess the color of my underwear, etc. etc. The cyclical yearn to fight for our right to… you GET it!!

Me personally? (Love to start another paragraph with me. Me, me, me, it’s all about me, I’m just living that life.) Anyway. Me personally? I’m “think[ing] about it all the time” (i think about it all the time, Charli XCX). Too concerned with Covid and probably the bubonic plague again to have a brat summer, but plenty of mental space to think about babies and if I’ll ever have one. Stars! I’m just like them. Charli successfully questions motherhood on this record without losing any momentum, without sacrificing any of its party girl essence. And don’t even get me started on the “girl, so confusing” remix featuring Lorde… I’m going to need to crack open something by Jean Baudrillard to get into that one. Suffice to say: perfect. Can I work it out on the remix with my long lost frenemies?

Charli XCX is so special. An artist of our generation. Someone to look forward with, and someone to enjoy the present with. She understands pop culture and her place in it almost as intrinsically as Taylor Swift does. What I like best about Charli is that she can be that intuitive and still reject formula, still take risks, still pick the rave over the football game. I will be contorting my body into the most insane figures and shapes you’ve ever seen to her music emphatically until the day I die.

TLDR; Brat’s big 3 are as follows.pop 2 sun, how i’m feeling now moon, and Crash rising

xoxo,

Nikki

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