Brat (Charli XCX album)

Brat
Studio album by Charli XCX
Released	7 June 2024
Genre	Hyperpop dance club
Length	41:23
Label	Atlantic
Producer	A. G. Cook Cirkut Finn Keane George Daniel Charli XCX Gesaffelstein Hudson Mohawke El Guincho Jon Shave Linus Wiklund Omer Fedi
Charli XCX chronology
Crash (2022) Brat (2024)
Singles from Brat
"Von Dutch" Released: 29 February 2024 "360" Released: 10 May 2024

Brat is the sixth studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released through Atlantic Records on 7 June 2024. Charli announced the record on 28 February 2024, "Von Dutch", the first single, released the next day. The second and final single from the album, "360", released on 10 May 2024. She has described the album as being aggressive and confrontational. Brat received critical acclaim from music critics, with some praising her emotional vulnerability throughout the record. Others dubbed it as one of her best albums.

Background and recording

The album evokes and channels the illegal London rave scene where Charli XCX started performing "when [she] was 14 or 15". This is her sixth studio album and first after renewing her contract with Atlantic Records in early 2023. It was announced on 28 February 2024, a day before the release of the lead single "Von Dutch", which was released on 29 February.

According to Charli XCX, Brat is her "most aggressive and confrontational record", but also her most vulnerable. On 22 February, during her Boiler Room warehouse set, she debuted snippets of tracks identified as "Spring Breakers" and "365". She was joined on the stage by Addison Rae and Julia Fox; a "Von Dutch" remix with Rae and A. G. Cook was released on 22 March. On 6 March, she premiered "So I" at the Billboard Women in Music event. "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", including Chloë Sevigny, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Alex Consani, Emma Chamberlain, Chloe Cherry, Richie Shazam, and more. The remix for "360" was released on May 31 and includes Robyn and Yung Lean.

Composition

Brat is a club, hyperpop, and dance record. 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". The Face's Shaad D'Souza compared the album's sound to '00s-era Ministry of Sound compilations The Annual and Rihanna's 2010 album Loud, describing the lyrics as "shady and bratty, but tender and heartbreaking".

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.

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".

"So I" is "a knotty exploration of her grief about [the death of] Sophie".

Artwork

Anticipating the release of Brat, the cover art of her discography has been updated across streaming platforms to match the aesthetics.

Brat's cover artwork and packaging was designed by New York City-based studio Special Offer, Inc. 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 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".

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.4/10
Metacritic	93/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
DIY
Exclaim!	9/10
The Guardian
The Independent
The Line of Best Fit	9/10
NME
Paste	9.0/10
Pitchfork	8.6/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Brat received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 from 19 critic scores. The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? complied 21 reviews and gave the album an average of 8.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Contemporary music critics praised Charli XCX's emotional vulnerability and some dubbed Brat one of the singer's best albums, with Laura Snapes of The Guardian calling it a "masterpiece".

Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the album as "bratty and brash" but "frequently vulnerable". Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone wrote that Brat "seesaws between extremes... a hyperpop rollercoaster of post-Saturn return, early-thirties anxieties, and It-girl bravado". At Pitchfork, Meaghan Garvey praised the album as one of Charli XCX's best, giving the album the website's "Best New Music" designation.

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". Vera Maksymiuk of Riff Magazine wrote that "whether on punchy and sassy single 'Von Dutch' or on more stripped-back songs like 'I think about it all the time'...you can feel Sophie watching over her, guiding her and coaxing her out of her creative comfort zone, as she did in life".

Track listing

Brat track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"360"	Charlotte Aitchison Alexander Guy Cook Henry Walter Finn Keane Omer Fedi Blake Slatkin	Cirkut A. G. Cook Keane[a]	2:13
2.	"Club Classics"	Aitchison George Daniel	Daniel Cook[a]	2:33
3.	"Sympathy Is a Knife"	Aitchison Keane Jonathan Christopher Shave	Keane Charli XCX	2:31
4.	"I Might Say Something Stupid"	Aitchison Mike Lévy	Gesaffelstein	1:49
5.	"Talk Talk"	Aitchison Cook Ross Matthew Birchard	Hudson Mohawke Cook[a]	2:41
6.	"Von Dutch"	Aitchison Keane	Keane	2:44
7.	"Everything Is Romantic"	Aitchison Pablo Díaz-Reixa	El Guincho Cook Charli XCX Jasper Harris[a] Marlonwiththeglasses[a] Jae Deal[a]	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	Cook	2:54
11.	"Apple"	Aitchison Daniel Linus Wiklund Noonie Bao	Daniel Wiklund Cook Charli XCX	2:31
12.	"B2B"	Aitchison Lévy	Gesaffelstein Fedi Cook	2:58
13.	"Mean Girls"	Aitchison Cook Birchard	Cook Hudson 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

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer.

Personnel

• Charli XCX – vocals
• Idania Valencia – mastering (tracks 1–5, 7–15)
• Randy Merrill – mastering (tracks 2, 6, 12)
• 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)
• 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)
• Ashley Jacobson – vocal engineering (track 6)
• Hudson Mohawke – vocal engineering (track 13)
• Matt Cahill – mixing assistance (tracks 7, 9, 11, 14, 15)