BRAT
Charli XCX
The Big Issue Australia
Issue #7155 July 2024
By Olivia J. Bennett
With over a decade under her belt, the people’s party princess Charli XCX’s Brat has firmly secured her position in pop’s hall of fame. Rallying a 19-piece girl gang of pop culture’s off-kilter elite for the launch of headline track "360," Charli defines a unique vision of womanhood. Not one to mince words, the album captures the silly, sad, sexy, and sensational feelings of being a girl while delicately reinventing genre-worn tropes. Featuring nasty synths, electro-disco beats, frenetic bass, and 00s earworms, all supported by producer A.G. Cook, it’s a masterclass in modern pop. From the anxieties of missing out on motherhood in “I think about it all the time” (I think I might run out of time / But I finally met my baby / And a baby might be mine), to “Girl, so confusing” exploring the compassionate competitiveness of female friendships, to “So I” paying a painfully honest tribute to late collaborator SOPHIE, and “Guess” exploiting the playful power dynamics of desire, Charli struck untouched chords with this decade-defining album.