Brat, But It’s Actually a Review

Charli XCX’s dance-pop album has dominated these past months, with fans coining this summer as “Brat Summer.”

Charli XCX will be returning on tour this month for her 2024 Brat Arena Tour. Credit: Abby Gillardi

via Flickr

Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, “Brat,” on June 7. Attracting music lovers across all different genres, the album shows her ability to blend mainstream appeal with her party-girl flair. Charli XCX has always pushed boundaries within the pop genre and uses this album to challenge the industry once again by incorporating defiant lyrics with infectious beats. 

The album broke the Internet after the artist’s two-year hiatus. Within the first week of its release, the artist sold 30,000 copies on vinyl, as reported by Billboard, and collected 46.72 million streams in just over a week.

On the album’s release date, Charli XCX took to Instagram to explain her creative processes and the motif of the album: “[it’s] me, my flaws, my f— ups, my ego all rolled into one.”

“Brat” features 15 songs, each crafted to perfection. Some honorable mentions include:

“Apple”

“Apple” is one of the most-played songs on the album, earning streams on streaming platforms and accumulating 1.4 million videos of users dancing to the song on TikTok. However, the fun song that we have all come to love has a much deeper meaning. In an interview with iHeart Radio in June, Charli XCX explained that the song explores her relationship with her parents. She describes herself as an apple hanging on her family’s tree to portray themes of generational trauma and wanting to break free. 

“365”

For many, when they hear “Brat,” they think of the song “365,” which is the last track on the album. This song encapsulates what Charli XCX wanted to be known as “brat summer.” The artist is widely known across the industry as a party girl, so the title “365” refers directly to a never-ending cycle of partying every day of the year. She explained on the Tape Notes podcast how she wanted each beat switch in the song to feel like a new room in a club, which is captured perfectly.

“Girl, so confusing” 
“Girl, so confusing” is a song about Charli XCX’s crumbling relationship with one of her female friends, which is perfectly explained by the song’s lyrics: “Yeah, I don't know if you like me/Sometimes I think you might hate me/Sometimes I think I might hate you/Maybe you just wanna be me.”

Quickly after the album's release, fans speculated that the song was about pop star Lorde. While the rumors were true, the two came back together to create “Girl, so confusing” featuring Lorde, in which Lorde portrayed her side of the story, explaining her experiences with insecurity and girlhood — specifically about issues with body image and media portrayal — leading the two friends to “work it out on the remix.”

Just three days after the original album release, Charli XCX released an expanded version of her album titled “Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not,” which includes the original 15 songs from her album, with three new tracks titled “Hello goodbye,” “Guess” and “Spring breakers.”
Most recently, Charli XCX released “Guess featuring Billie Eilish,” a raunchy revamped version of the original song released on the expanded album on Aug. 1. The song reached 2.183 billion plays on Spotify in its first day. Charlie XCX dominated this summer, inspiring TikTok dances, memes and fun fashion trends, leaving fans to deem this summer a “brat summer.”