Review by AVA LIVERSIDGE
The latest LP Brat from English hyperpop artist Charli xcx hits rewind as it pushes the envelope for pop as a genre. Charli xcx got her start DJing in London’s warehouse rave scene. As the artist inched her way towards more mainstream success via successful collaborators (See: the pop sensation “Fancy” with Iggy Azalea or “I Don’t Care” with Icona Pop) she proved that hints of the pulsating rave harangues from which she hailed could be enjoyed beyond the underground. She also proved her versatility as an artist and lyricist.
With her LP Brat, we can finally say with some assurance that Charli xcx has comfortably situated herself in a position in the mainstream. Single “Von Dutch” was already being hailed as the Song of the Summer in February. But, this attention was not garnered by leaning into her pop song proclivities.
In fact, Brat sounds like a resurrection of the rave scene Charli xcx, the artist, was weaned on. However, she maintains the wisdom that has accompanied her artistic maturation: On Brat, Charlie xcx has her listeners introspecting in some seamy corner of a dingy club. Thus, Brat’s thrust sometimes lies in the throttling bass lines, intricately overlaid with the metallic twangs characteristic of techno, and sometimes in the hard-hitting lyricism.
On Brat, Gen Z’s party girl princess shoves her humanity to the fore without sacrificing the infectious energy that propelled her beat-making out of the underground. Brat sweeps between bonafide pop romps (“360,” “Rewind,” “B2b”) and hyperpop, house mania (“365,” “Everything is romantic”).
Charli xcx is able to ruminate on motherhood (“I think about it all the time”), grief (“So I”), and the merits of commercial success (“I might say something stupid”) while simultaneously self-identifying as a “brat when she’s bumping that..” It’s this feat of dynamism that makes the artist and Brat symbolically significant, beyond its musical merits. Brat’s breadth, and soft spoken depth easily masked in a sort of ironic, sweat-soaked pastiche, embodies a generational disposition to embrace a sort of unadulterated vulnerability alongside a bathroom bump and a smattering of glitter.
Brat is deliciously hedonistic, a celebration of the saccharine, and the ability to earnestly question whether you deserve your successes whilst still indulging in its perks. Listeners already seem to agree that Charli xcx has set the tone for this summer with her latest, but Brat also serves as a surprisingly erudite representation of the tone of a generation. Charli xcx’s LP Brat was released Friday.
