Charli XCX and a Brat-Themed Summer
It-girls around the world are dancing to Charli's new album, popping up in her music videos, and appearing in crowds at her concerts. Get ready for a brat summer.
(Lots of links and TikToks in this one..sue me! I’m just a girl.)
Vroom vroom in a big pink truck! That’s the type of energy a brat summer has. Last week, Charli XCX dropped her latest album, BRAT, and on Wednesday I got the chance to see her concert. So, naturally, I must write about my latest obsession, Charli baby!
If you’re not familiar with Charli XCX, she’s kind of the queen of mid-level popstars and the frontwoman for the hyperpop subgenre (think of it as avant-garde pop…electronic, maximalist, 100 Gecs vibes). You must’ve at minimum heard her song “I Love It,'“ which blew up in the early 2010s, so she’s not necessarily a new artist. Yet, her rise as a pop star has been a slow one since she mostly moves in niche, cool music scenes.
Until this album. The rollout, the branding, and the music all feel like a culmination of Charli’s years of hard work and artistry.
The Album
Charli has BEEN in the party-girl scene. But not quite in the way you’d think. As a kid, she initially got into music and performing at clubs in the UK (she’s British, of course) and her parents would take her to raves. So it only makes sense that this album is a glimpse into the party-girl life.
The rollout really took off when Charli released “Von Dutch” and performed a Boilerrom set with A.G. Cook, her fiance George Daniel from the 1975, and Easyfun. A.G Cook is essentially the father of the Hyperpop movement and is a well-known producer who’s collabed with Charli quite a bit in the past, so his fingerprints are all over the album.
But my favorite producer that she phoned for help is actually The Dare. Last year in Dimes Square, The Dare blew up with an EP featuring a very indie-sleaze-flavored track, “Girls.” After he dropped this, he DJed several New York scene parties and toured around lightly. Charli dropped an extended BRAT album titled ‘Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not” with my current earworm-favorite, “Guess.” Thank you Charli for teaming up with The Dare on that one. I will continue to play it on repeat all summer.
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Though the whole album may seem party-centric and fun, there is also a lot going on under the surface. The current drama online is that “Sympathy is a knife” is clearly about Taylor Swift and Charli’s insecurities around her—very “Lacy”-coded and also very much about Taylor because Charli includes “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show,” referencing when Taylor dated Matty Healy (do we remember my first Substack about Mr. Tortured Poet himself?).
Also, my favorite songs are the sleeper hits on the album like “So I” about the loss of her friend and fellow artist SOPHIE, and serves as a response song to “It’s Okay to Cry.” Or the song I can’t get out of my head,“I think about it all the time” about her internal fears of losing her freedom and fun times as a woman if she chooses to settle down.
And the best part of the album is that she starts it with “360” and ends it with “365” where she remixes “360” and turns it into a rave banger. Have you ever listened to an album where the artist remixes their own song on the same album? Pretty iconic.
The It Girls
Brat has already lived several lives and it’s only been out a week. Charli is a cool girl who hangs with other cool girls and has her ear close to the ground. She knows how to create a narrative around the album and promote it through some of the hottest niche influencers of our time currently. And as a girl who is obsessed with a niche influencer, I thank her for that.
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At her Boilerrom, she had Julia Fox perform her new song and brought out Addison Rae for a remix of Von Dutch. She went on Emma Chamberlain’s podcast and Las Culturistas to promote the album. She’s got an upcoming joint tour with Troye Sivan (don’t even get me started on Troye, his last album was criminally underrated). For the people who truly love deep cuts, Charli also put out a remix of “360” with Robyn and Yung Lean. She’s just…your favorite artist’s favorite artist at this point.
This all culminates in her music video for “360.” She called all of her fav hot it girls from the internet and what a blessing. There’s Chloe Cherry of Euphoria fame, Rachel Sennott from Bottoms, Gabriette (Matty Healy’s fiance), Hari Nef, Salem Mitchell, Chloe Sevigny (mother!!!), and more.
If none of these names sound broadly familiar, it’s because they occupy the same internet niche that Charli does. They’re post-influencer, ironic, avant-garde, trendsetting, social media/internet savants. They are like hyperpop—self-referential and subversive, in on the joke, commentary on late-capitalism dystopia.
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The Brat Summer Moodboard
So that leaves us with a Brat summer. The vibes are trashy but classy. Funny, silly, a little dark, dry humor. Charli’s British girl valley accent. A pack of cigarettes and a Bic lighter (we don’t condone smoking though, the cigs are just for the aesthetic).
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Brat also seems like the perfect encapsulation of my feelings going into the summer. I want to feel like a party girl in that I want to have fun, genuinely. But I also have some intrusive thoughts and feel anxiety-ridden, insecure, and a little bit worried about my future or that my friends are finally growing up. And on top of it all, I can’t ignore that these last few years have been entirely draining and I can definitely buy into the dystopia/brutalist undertones in the music too. Can anyone else relate? Just me?
I don’t mean to end this on a depressing note, but I feel like Brat is resonating because it feels really real. It’s probably her best work because it strikes the perfect balance between honest and exuberant. Authenticity in a strappy white tank top blasting “Vroom Vroom” in a shitty car.
