Wikipedia

Brat (album)

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Brat is the sixth studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released through Atlantic Records on 7 June 2024. The album features production from Charli XCX's longtime executive producer A.G. Cook and herself, in addition to Easyfun, Cirkut, her partner George Daniel, and others. The album's pop sound draws on both rave music and the singer's previous experimental releases, and balances an aggressive and brash attitude with moments of vulnerability.

Brat
The word "brat" written in lowercase, low resolution Arial Narrow font on a lime green background.
Studio album by
Charli XCX
Released7 June 2024
Studio
Genre
Length41:23
LabelAtlantic[1]
Producer
Charli XCX chronology
Crash
(2022) 		Brat
(2024)
Singles from Brat
  1. "Von Dutch"
    Released: 29 February 2024
  2. "360"
    Released: 10 May 2024

Brat debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and reached the top ten in nine additional countries including the United States. It received acclaim from music critics and as of June 2024, it is the highest-rated album of 2024 according to Metacritic, and the 16th-highest-rated album of all time. A deluxe version with three additional tracks was released on 10 June 2024.[2]

Background and recording

Brat is Charli XCX's sixth studio album and first after renewing her contract with Atlantic Records in early 2023.[3][4] It was announced on 28 February 2024, a day before the release of the lead single "Von Dutch", which was released on 29 February.[5][6]

According to Charli XCX, Brat is her "most aggressive and confrontational record", but also her most vulnerable.[7] On 22 February, during her Boiler Room warehouse set, she debuted snippets of tracks identified as "Spring Breakers" and "365".[8] She was joined on the stage by Addison Rae and Julia Fox;[9] a "Von Dutch" remix with Rae and A. G. Cook was released on 22 March.[10] On 6 March, she premiered "So I" at the Billboard Women in Music event.[11] "Club Classics" and "B2B" were released on 3 April as a two-pack promotional single.

After teasing the song for a few days, on 29 April, Charli announced the release of the next single, "360". It was released on 10 May alongside its music video, which was teased earlier that day, and was described by her as "[her] best music video ever". The music video features multiple "it girls",[12] including Chloë Sevigny, Julia Fox, and Rachel Sennott. A remix of "360" soon followed, featuring Swedish artists Robyn and Yung Lean, which was released on 31 May.[13]

Composition

Brat channels the illegal London rave scene where Charli XCX started performing when she was a teenager.[14] She also mentioned that Brat "is probably the closest album to Pop 2 in its ethos".[15] It has been described as consisting of electropop,[16] club-pop,[7] hyperpop,[17] electroclash,[18] and dance styles.[19] As Charli XCX told Billboard's Katie Bain, Brat is produced from a tight collection of sounds to create "this unique minimalism that is very loud and bold".[14] The Face's Shaad D'Souza compared the album's sound to 2000s-era Ministry of Sound compilations The Annual and Rihanna's 2010 album Loud, describing the lyrics as "shady and bratty, but tender and heartbreaking".[7]

Charli XCX has confirmed that one track from the album, "Girl, So Confusing," explores her contentious relationship with a fellow female artist. "Sympathy is a Knife" also alludes to this.[20] Another track, partially inspired by Red Scare co-host Dasha Nekrasova and actress and singer Julia Fox, focuses on society's "fascination with mean girls".[7] The Face described the track "So I" as "a knotty exploration of her grief about [the death of] Sophie".[21][22][7] "Apple" was written with inspiration from the writing style of Charli XCX's close friend and collaborator Caroline Polachek.[23]

Artwork

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anticipating the release of Brat, the cover art of her discography was updated across streaming platforms to match the aesthetics. Charli also stylized the "XCX" of her stage name in lowercase to further promote the release of the album.

Brat's cover artwork and packaging was designed by New York City-based studio Special Offer, Inc.[24] The cover, a low resolution lime green square with the title disproportionately imposed on it, was met with criticism. In a cover story interview for Vogue Singapore, she told Chandreyee Ray that the criticism led her to question why fans feel "ownership over female artists" so much so that they demand their photograph be on all of their work; she had previously dubbed it "mysoginistic [sic] and boring" on X (formerly Twitter). She further explained the album cover and particularly the colour choice, deeming green heavily oversaturated in the media and fashion "as of late": "I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong. I'd like for us to question our expectations of pop culture—why are some things considered good and acceptable, and some things deemed bad? I'm interested in the narratives behind that and I want to provoke people. I'm not doing things to be nice". People's Sadie Bell linked the album cover with the nature of the album, which Charli XCX dubbed "confrontational".[25][26]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.7/10[27]
Metacritic95/100[28]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [29]
Exclaim!9/10[30]
The Guardian     [31]
The Independent     [32]
The Line of Best Fit9/10[19]
NME     [33]
Paste9.0/10[18]
Pitchfork8.6/10[34]
Rolling Stone     [35]
Slant Magazine     [36]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Brat received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 95 out of 100 from 23 critic scores.[28] As of June 2024, it ranks as the highest-rated album of 2024, and as the 16th-highest-rated album of all time on the website.[37] The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? compiled 26 reviews and gave the album an average of 8.7 out of 10.[27] Critics praised Charli XCX's emotional vulnerability and several declared Brat to be one of her best albums,[38][34][39][40] with Laura Snapes of The Guardian calling it a "masterpiece".[31]

Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the album as "bratty and brash" but "frequently vulnerable".[36] Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone wrote that Brat was a "hyperpop rollercoaster of post-Saturn return, early-thirties anxieties, and It-girl bravado".[17] Ben Tipple from DIY saw the album as a manifestation of the singer's rave roots, dubbing it "an unmistakable representation of her very core; an exhilarating ode to the multiple facets of club culture".[41]

Meaghan Garvey of Pitchfork lauded the album as "substantial in new ways for Charli" and gave it the distinction of Best New Music.[42] Writing for Paste, Eric Bennett praised the album and described it as "messy and vulnerable... in a way Charli's work has lacked over the last decade".[18] Music critic and YouTuber Anthony Fantano gave Brat a rare perfect score.[43]

Commercial performance

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Brat debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, earning Charli her second top ten charting album in the country.[44]

International

In the US, Brat debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 82,000 album equivalent-units sold on its opening week, comprising of 45,000 pure album sales. With this feat, it became Charli's highest charting album in the country. It also earned Charli her highest first week overall sales and her biggest streaming week ever with 46.72 million streams.[45]

Track listing

Brat – standard edition track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."360"
2:13
2."Club Classics"
2:33
3."Sympathy Is a Knife"
  • Keane
  • Charli XCX
2:31
4."I Might Say Something Stupid"
1:49
5."Talk Talk"
2:41
6."Von Dutch"
  • Aitchison
  • Keane
Keane2:44
7."Everything Is Romantic"
3:23
8."Rewind"
  • Aitchison
  • Walter
  • Cook
  • Cirkut
  • Cook
2:48
9."So I"
  • Aitchison
  • Keane
  • Shave
  • Shave
  • Cook
3:31
10."Girl, So Confusing"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
Cook2:54
11."Apple"
  • Daniel
  • Wiklund
  • Cook
  • XCX
2:31
12."B2B"
  • Aitchison
  • Lévy
  • Gesaffelstein
  • Fedi
  • Cook
  • Schoudel[v]
2:58
13."Mean Girls"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
  • Birchard
  • Cook
  • Mohawke
3:09
14."I Think About It All the Time"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
  • Keane
  • Shave
  • Cook
  • Keane
2:15
15."365"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
  • Cook
  • Cirkut
3:23
Total length:41:23
Brat and It's the Same But There's Three More Songs So It's Not – deluxe edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
16."Hello Goodbye"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
Cook3:39
17."Guess"
The Dare2:22
18."Spring Breakers"
  • Aitchison
  • Cook
  • Keane
  • Shave
  • Cook
  • Keane
  • Shave
2:23
Total length:49:46

Notes

  • ^[a] signifies an additional producer.
  • ^[v] signifies a vocal producer.
  • "Spring Breakers" contains an interpolation of "Everytime" (2003), written by Britney Spears and Annet Artani, and performed by Spears.[2]

Personnel

  • Charli XCX – vocals, executive production, design, layout
  • Randy Merrill – mastering
  • Idania Valencia – mastering (tracks 1–5, 7–18)
  • Manny Marroquin – mixing (tracks 1, 8)
  • Tom Norris – mixing (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 13)
  • Bart Schoudel – mixing, vocal engineering (tracks 4, 12)
  • Gesaffelstein – mixing (tracks 4, 12)
  • Geoff Swan – mixing (tracks 7, 9, 11, 14–18)
  • Cirkut – vocal engineering (tracks 1, 8)
  • George Daniel – vocal engineering (tracks 2, 11)
  • Jon Shave – vocal engineering (tracks 3, 9)
  • Finn Keane – vocal engineering (tracks 3, 14)
  • A. G. Cook – vocal engineering (tracks 5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16), executive production
  • Ashley Jacobson – vocal recording (track 6)
  • Hudson Mohawke – vocal engineering (track 13)
  • Matt Cahill – mixing assistance (tracks 7, 9, 11, 14–18)
  • Special Offer – design, layout
  • Imogene Strauss – design, layout

Charts

Chart performance for Brat
Chart (2024) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[46] 3
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[47] 7
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[48] 6
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[49] 6
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[50] 6
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[51] 12
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[52] 4
French Albums (SNEP)[53] 16
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[54] 8
Icelandic Albums (Plötutíðindi)[55] 16
Irish Albums (OCC)[56] 3
Italian Albums (FIMI)[57] 26
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)[58] 20
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[59] 4
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[60] 33
Scottish Albums (OCC)[61] 2
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[62] 5
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[63] 32
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[64] 10
UK Albums (OCC)[65] 2
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[66] 1
US Billboard 200[67] 3
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[68] 1

References

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