"Charli XCX - BRAT" Messy yet Catchy

     I am unabashedly a proud Charli XCX fan. When her album how i'm feeling now was released back in 2020 during the pandemic I was intrigued. After all, I had only known her for songs like Boom Clap and I Love It, I was hardly as well versed into music as I am now and I had never known anything like hyperpop. Fast-forward four years later and I'd be lying to say that she isn't one of my favourite pop artists of the past 5 years. I mean my perception of her has definitely soured, I feel like the way she talked to/treated fans during the CRASH era was less than ideal, and I definitely did not like the way she handled her whole situation with Rina Sawayama, but most fans don't seem to care. I suppose if she's an asshole it mostly just confirms what she sings about, being this ultra-confident party girl. And so, I'll admit it, I had my reservations coming into this album, I had already been pretty disappointed by this years releases so far, and considering the album cover, not to mention my aversion to club music, I was afraid this release was going to be another dud for me. I am happy to report though, that it's not, and so without further ado, my track-by-track review.

BRAT - Charli XCX

360 - 86/100 I remember hearing this single once when it was released, and thinking "oh that's cool" and then never playing it again. I suppose my personal biases about how Charli handled things really clouded my any sort of hype I had for this album. I have to say though, in the leadup to this albums release I listened to it once more, and I just can't get it out of my head. There's just something about it that's so catchy, I definitely catch myself sometimes randomly singing the chorus while I'm just doing things.

Club Classics - 65/100 Well when Charli released the two singles to this song I definitely preferred B2b immediately, and I still do, but oddly enough this track has grown on me? I mean I don't actually particularly like or would dance to any part of this song other than the verses that start with "put your hands up and dance".

Sympathy is a knife - 76/100 Is this song actually about Taylor Swift like Genius is suggesting? It's a fine enough track I like it enough but I could definitely see it being one of those tracks that grows on me randomly over time.

I might say something stupid - 50/100 I'm a big fan of Charli XCX slow songs, party 4 u, White Mercedes, and Lucky are some of my favourite songs by her, sadly, this one is not. It's kind of one-tone, but not in a good way like 505 by Arctic Monkeys where they play like four notes the entire time but it still manages to be really good, but more in an I put the song on and completely forgot about it until it was over kind of way. I mean it's under 2 minutes so that might be why. Is it better viewed as a sort of interlude? Perhaps, but I don't think the album was built to really have them.

Talk talk - 87/100 I will just say that this is one of my favourite songs off the track kind of easily. It has those feelings of longing that are always just appreciated by me in a pop song, and it's just so catchy and simple. I suppose you might not enjoy how repetitive the chorus is but in my opinion it just helped this song carve out a little chunk of my brain to live in.

Von dutch - 85/100 Do I think this song goes hard? Definitely. I just love the absolutely thumping bass that just overpowers everything. This song definitely took a couple listens to grow on me when it was first released but honestly the whole club music kind of vibe that Charli was going for this entire album is growing on me quite a decent bit.

Everything is romantic - 45/100 The transition from the strings to the club beat is certainly jarring to say the least. At least Club Classics had a part that I really liked. The strings part on this song was like fine at best, but this song certainly isn't my cup of tea, and frankly just doesn't gel it's part well enough to pull off the soft-loud contrast it's going for. Sure it's interesting, but when my favourite part is the outro where she's just repeating the same lines over and over again something surely has gone wrong.

Rewind - 76/100 Is the chorus a little short? Yeah, but I still think the song has a decent enough little pep to it that makes it catchy. I wouldn't say it's as standout as some of my favourite songs earlier in the tracklist, but it'd definitely solid in my eyes.

So I - 75/100 Decent little tune for a slow song, not my favourite Charli slow track but definitely a touching tribute to the late Sophie who had some songs I liked. I think this song is more interesting as a sort of insight to how Sophie and Charli's relationship ultimately was like by the end, but it's still a song I'd want to listen to again

Girl, so confusing - 75/100 I want to take this space to talk about how I feel about the song lengths and runtime on this album. Despite only being ~40 minutes long it has 15 minute tracks which means a lot of the songs are super short. It helps especially when some of these tracks I'm not too crazy about, but also it has me sort of missing her earlier work where I felt like the songs were more developed and weren't allergic to being longer than 3 minutes

Apple - 77/100 I don't recall this song being that special during my first listen but frankly the synths are growing on me significantly and while I do wish this song had a chorus I think the verses and synths that are supporting it are enough for it to be good enough for me.

B2b - 80/100 The only complain I could see someone having against this song is that it really doesn't do too much outside of what it provides at the outset. Which is a catchy track that mostly repeats itself and maintains the momentum throughout the entire song. I do think the one verse is actually quite nice though and I wish Charli had more parts of the song like that.

Mean girls - 85/100 The second half of this album doesn't have any song as good as Talk Talk or 360 but I just think it's a lot more consistent than the first half. Also the piano interlude on this song is kind of great I love it.

I think about it all the time - 60/100 Never would I thought to have heard Charli XCX discuss motherhood on an album. It's a fine song but it never builds upon itself too much. The beginning of the second verse is kind of good, but the parts where she just ends up doing spoken word takes me out of the song to be honest.

365 - 60/100 I mean I like the track but that's because it's essentially a remix of 360. Sadly I do like the 360 better than this song, I don't think it adds too much to what the original track brought to the table it just kind of makes it heavier by adding these louder beats, and frankly, I think it could do without them. To be honest I've always felt Charli is pretty hit or miss with these outro tracks anyways.

Final Score: 80/100

    I would say that right now this is firmly my album of the year. I mean I still prefer Charli's older work, but I'd be lying if I said this album contains a strong crop of songs, many of which are bound to grow on me as I keep on spinning this record over the summer. I think my thoughts about it haven't changed much, I still feel like she's simplified a lot of things, making songs shorter, making them more club-friendly, and there's nothing wrong with that but I just prefer the longer songs. It's not like she was making multi-faceted 6 minute songs before anyways. In terms of the bonus tracks I'm not too crazy about Guess but Hello goodbye is a song I'd definitely listen to again. Spring Breakers is fine but I just wish it a bit more melodic, I guess I'm not the biggest Charli XCX rapping fan. Overall, while my Charli XCX fandom is more subdued since she's made a lot of decisions that personally I'm not the biggest fan about, I have to admit that she's still got it in her in terms of making great, pop music that keeps me crawling back. Good job Charli, I wasn't sure you still had it in you.