brat and it’s completely different but also still brat - review
Who would’ve thought at the beginning of 2024 that Charli xcx would be dominating the mainstream pop-sphere? Since the release of BRAT, a niche, misunderstood musician primarily favored by the LGBTQ+ community, catapulted head-first into A-list stardom. An influx of thought pieces via “stan Twitter” have made the rounds online, analyzing this sudden shift in public interest surrounding Charli, all undoubtedly in agreement that she simply just really wants to be a popstar. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Charli elaborated on her hardcore fans and how desperately they want to see her succeed. Her job? To give them a reason to want that.
In the midst of the fall of “Brat Summer,” and a co-headlining tour with Troye Sivan, comes BRAT’s highly anticipated remix album, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, which may just win second place in the longest album title of the world awards, second to none other than her own Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not. Previous offerings from the project include a Billie Eilish remix to The-Dare-produced “Guess,” an unexpected link-up with Yung Lean and Robyn on “360,” and Charli airing out her alleged feud with Lorde on “Girl, so confusing.” These 3 tracks all contribute to the conventional half of the album, solely incorporating new verses across (hardly) unmodified production. As for the rest? It’s a ride, with some tracks hardly resembling the original other than the obligatory placement of the tracks title.
On the bb trickz-remixed “Club classics,” the track somehow finds its way to an even sweatier dance-floor, interpolating Charli’s own “365.” Whereas on “I think about it all the time,” Bon Iver croons over youthful synths, assimilating a mutual cathartic release between the two. The biggest differentiator from this project and the original BRAT is an overarching intensity of unfiltered emotion. The tracks frequently serve as a vessel, inviting the featured artists to probe their own unique stories, while Charli manifests as a muse guiding the exploration. The premier example of this is Ariana Grande’s appearance on “Sympathy is a knife.” Volleying back and forth with Charli, Grande recounts the double-edged sword of her own fame, with both artists' interpretation of the phrase “it’s a knife” working in tandem.
Charli’s artistry pulses with her ability to re-imagine her own music, and everything about this particular endeavour falls into place because of it. Enlisting Tinashe on “B2b,” the pair orchestrate a radical reinterpretation of the track that flips the original meaning on its head. Gone are the echoes of an ex, and what emerges is a declaration of agency, a manifesto celebrating the art of getting shit done. A.G. Cook’s contribution to “So I” feels tasteful yet exciting, given the context of the song, and Caroline Polachek’s bizarro rework of “Everything is romantic” sits on the ideal middle ground between Polachek and Charli’s individual sounds. One thing evidently clear with every release of Charli’s is that her ability to one-up her previous work is never intentional. She’s a forward thinker and she weighs longevity into her decision making process, crafting music that evolves organically while staying true to her essence. In doing this, Charli not only redefines her own narrative but also challenges the system of pop music, bringing both her collaborators and her listeners directly into the future with her.
