Charli XCX Triumphs Through Pop Catharsis on BRAT

In a move that feels equal parts brave and chaotic, Charli XCX doesn’t shy away from acknowledging her discomfort with the way the current pop landscape pits women against each other. Even an artist as siloed as she is can’t seem to escape the constant comparisons, an insecurity among her peers that gets a closer reckoning on several of BRAT’s songs. While the vocal production choices on “Girl, so confusing” aren’t always successful, it lets Charli’s very real jealousy get expressed without veering into a teardown. Though she never addresses the artist by name, the lyrics do hold some clues: This person is more “about writing poems” than going to parties, and people say that she and Charli “have the same hair.” In a moment that feels especially pointed, Charli sings: “Think you should come to my party and put your hands up.” “Sympathy is a knife” does something similar, but with its darker lyrics and serrated synths, it hits much harder. For Charli, pity is an insult, especially when it’s from someone who already makes her feel bad about herself—“Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried / I’m opposite, I’m on the other side,” she sings. We hear her get sent into a paranoid spiral, and the production plays that up in a cacophonous hail of drum machines.

We’re also treated to two of the most traditionally beautiful songs she’s ever recorded. Recalling Farrah Abraham’s mechanized stream of consciousness, “I think about it all the time” is an honest exploration of Charli’s feelings on motherhood. She reckons with fears that she’ll miss out on an experience that friends of hers are enjoying. These friends “know these things that I don’t” because they’ve become parents. It’s jarring in both sound and subject, but for an artist who made her name on evolution, she reckons with what kind of world she still has in front of her. We also hear Charli explore feelings of loss on BRAT. In the wake of SOPHIE’s passing, there have been paeans to her legacy from peers and admirers alike, most recently St. Vincent. It’s fitting that the only one with real pathos comes from Charli XCX, an artist whose trajectory was more altered by the late pop virtuoso than any other. First premiered at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards, “So I” is the rare moment where Charli lets all ego fall away. She sings about dinner invites declined and phone calls missed, and expresses guilt and regret. Anyone who’s lost someone suddenly knows how these feelings come flanking grief. In its chorus, she sings, “You always said it’s okay to cry / So I cry.” It’s a touching tribute to a friend that both reveres SOPHIE’s immense talent, but refuses to let any of us forget the person behind the music. As Charli puts it: “You’re a hero and a human.”

Though BRAT is, at every moment, an album about Charli’s feelings, it’s important to note that not all of those feelings are raw. There’s the ebullient “Club classics,” a song that exists both within and outside the club, building alongside her anticipation for a night out. There’s the bold and, well, bratty “Von dutch,” a self-obsessed and deliriously fun romp so good that its second-verse-same-as-the-first structure isn’t reductive. Much like when a song’s chorus is so good you find yourself hoping they’ll do it one more time, all of “Von dutch” is that good. By all means, repeat it! There’s the icy, disaffected cool of “360,” an all-timer in her catalog already—where Charli absolutely floats over a simple but thrilling beat from Cook and Cirkut. Its video is packed with It Girls like Chloe Sevigny, Rachel Sennott and Alex Consani, as are its lyrics. There’s no reason that a song whose chorus namedrops Julia Fox should work so well, but it just does!

As with many past Charli projects, the final song is one of the most remarkable she’s ever done. As with Pop 2’s beloved closer “Track 10” and how i’m feeling now’s “visions,” the uproarious “365” is loaded with ambition and slamming bass. The beat from “360” is repurposed and serves as a bedrock for a more twisted and mangled version of itself. If “360” is made for the pregame, “365” was cut straight from the rock of late night bathroom key bumps one takes to straighten themselves out after hours of partying. As it comes in for a landing, the high-pitched “bumpin’ that!” refrain hits the runway sharply, allowing the album to recalibrate back into itself on an endless loop. “365” is all the more rewarding thanks to the anxiety-riddled songs that came before it. Hearing Charli set those emotions aside and fall into an electrifying, dancey void makes that abandon feel more earned and more electric.

BRAT puts Charli XCX in a curious position: Even as she ponders her future and reflects on her career, she’s doing it in a way that burrows further into her own niches. BRAT is one of her least immediately accessible records yet. Instead, it plays up the aspects of her campy, fascinating sound that longtime fans love. In that sense, she’s following the lead of the artists at her level. Luckily for Charli, none of her peers are making anything as singular as she is.

Eric Bennett is a music critic in Philadelphia with bylines at Pitchfork, Post-Trash and The Alternative. They are also a co-host of Endless Scroll, a weekly podcast covering the intersection of music and internet culture. You can follow them on Twitter @violet_by_hole.