Brat

Every 8 years there’s a massive hit act that makes people tell you, “Oh, no, this is actually REALLY good, this has a lot more vitamins and fibre than you would expect!” and so you give it a try and it always turns out it’s just another Nutrigrain bar

This album has disappointingly very little to do with bratwurst.

When I go to the pub I want to eat those pub classics

fart

This is the exact mind numbing music that I dislike.

Brat - Charlie XCX This is such a weird one to review. I had only heard snippets of it before, and to be fair and honest, it is not my thing. But it ended up being one of the most popular albums of the last 10 years, a modern phenomenon, so I've gone in trying to hide any bias. It has a charm, and i genuinely mean it. There are so many charms to it that it becomes incredibly charming, but some of the charms themselves on their own are things I'd usually have as negatives. Firstly, im not sure she can sing, I think I've heard her say that herself, the use of autotone constantly is a choice, but it kinda works. The lyrics are horrendous, but it kinda works. The actually songs are something that sounds almost like a parody. It's like in a tv show when the friend is in a group and they play everyone their music and it's "okay". Part of me thinks everything about her is a comment on the music industry, and she's laughing at everyone lapping it up. But it works. Maybe it's a 3, maybe it's a 4. I don't know I found the whole thing very confusing

Brat is a slice of mid 00s EDM and rave clubbing culture, and it does a great job of matching that sound with squelchy synths, punchy electronic percussion, and blaring bass. More importantly than just what's contained within the music, is the atmosphere that it cultivates. Charli XCX is a party girl, something you'll be well aware of by the end of the album. With brat, Charli XCX has come full circle. She started off as a electronic infused dance pop artist, and after playing around with less commercial elements during her time within the PC Music scene, she has come back to electronic dance-pop. Brat is not the same as her early work though, with her experience working with musicians in the PC Music space (such as A.G. Cook who produces some songs on the album) comes an injection of hyperpop sounds such as the heavily autotuned vocals and almost industrial bass, which really kicks the EDM up a notch beyond what it was inspired by. Speaking of inspirations, you can hear the influence of 00s EDM legends like Daft Punk and Justice all over the record, even 360 and the other songs that use its leitmotif (Rewind and 365) sound exactly like Stardust's one hit. The hyperpop influence here is the big reason why brat has such a big sound. The exaggerated effects of hyperpop give the album a high-octane and drugged up sound, like you're at the rave drinking alcohol and taking uppers. The blaring synths and heavy autotune do give the album a disorienting and wobbly feeling which matches the exhausted yet fun feeling from the club. Lyrically this album is her usual shtick of sexual party girl with more heartfelt lyrics about relationships, feelings, and insecurities. These personal lyrics had more impact on me during her 2020 COVID era hit album How I'm Feeling Now, but it does provide an interesting contrast to the non-stop partying atmosphere of brat. The penultimate song - I Think About It All The Time - drops a lot of the EDM and Hyperpop influences for a heartfelt song about Charli balancing her music career with her private life and starting a family, and it works as a wonderful introspective come down to the hi-energy clubbing sound from the rest of the album... Only for the closer, 365, to go full-throttle back to partying. I liked this a lot more now than I did when it originally came out, there's lots and hooks and energy and it's a very fun album. The lyrics push it further into artistic territory, and I'm glad for those who like them and relate, but really I'm just here to groove. Was it a good addition to the list: Yes 100%. I don't like albums that have been added within the past 5 years, but this was such a cultural phenomenon that it really would have been a huge misstep were it excluded. Probably the best possible inclusion they could have made between 2022 and now Top 3 songs: 360, Von Dutch, I Think About It All the Time

Please make it stop!

This was a big pop album and had significant cultural cut-through. But that's what big pop albums are supposed to do. I guess this is a textbook example of effective 21st century marketing, but is that the same as being a good record? Charli XCX's tendency to take the lid off and show how the sausage is made, coupled with a heavily ironic reflexivity, allows her to have her sausage and eat it too. When coupled when with the film The Moment, it is difficult to tell what she really means and what she doesn't. She can simultaneously sell-out and roll her eyes about the shit corporatization of music. It's smart, but morally slippery. Very po-mo. As a listening experience, it's a'ight. Good pop music, but it's hard to tell if it will bear the test of time. Charli herself seems to have moved on, having released the aforementioned film deconstructing Brat, and two subsequent albums. Let's reconvene in 20 year sand see if this album still floats.

There’s a cool anxiety to the Sonic Youthy dissonant sounds that drone into these songs that suits the tone: marvellous songs that dwell in what’s not quite right, perhaps a core facet of great pop. This was as fine as I hoped it to be - such a splendid, fast set of tracks, blazing past with wit and hooks both verbal and sonic. Coming so soon after the 808 State debut, its lineage in acid squelch is unmistakeable, though I wouldn’t have imagined the style’s marriage to caustic diarising would hit so well. It’s a coherent album in this long age of multiproducer homogenisation. I hope her others are similar.

A pleasant surprise; unlike other recent yoof music hyped my way (*cough Sabrina Carpenter cough*), it sounds like CXCX is fully committed to making this as entertaining as possible, putting a real effort in. Tuneful and funny, once it gets going around "Everything Is Romantic" it's basically wall-to-wall bangers with sarcastic commentary, right up my alley. High enough quality even to redeem its mindless co-option by the clueless Harris campaign.

Actually pretty great album. Lots of fun and varied. A song on there really gave me Sleigh Bells vibes, and I fw Sleigh Bells. The last song goes pretty hard and I cranked the bass. 3.75/5

This kinda sucks and feels pretty basic. Lots of random sound work but I couldn't attach to any of it. Could be me, maybe this kills it for someone who is 20.

BRAT by Charli XCX is definitely not the sort of album I would normally choose to put on. It's quite a long way from my usual musical tastes, but that's one of the things I love about this challenge. Every now and then, an album comes along that surprises me. And I have to say, I actually liked this a lot! It's catchy, energetic and has plenty of variety, while still being a really easy listen. There are some great pop tunes here, and I enjoyed the mixture of electronic sounds, dance beats and catchy melodies. It's the sort of album that doesn't take itself too seriously and is great fun to listen to. What surprised me most was how much I enjoyed the whole thing. I expected to struggle with this, but instead I found myself getting into the songs and enjoying the energy of the album. There's enough variation to keep it interesting, and nothing felt particularly weak or out of place. Overall, BRAT was a really pleasant surprise. It's not normally my kind of music, but I can certainly appreciate a good pop album when I hear one. This is another example of why I enjoy this challenge so much. It's introduced me to music I would probably never have listened to otherwise. I'd definitely listen to this again. Favourite tracks: "Everything Is Romantic", "360" and "Club Classics". Least favourite track: Nothing really. Everything was worth a listen. Album artwork: Cool album cover. Incredibly simple, but bright, striking and instantly recognisable.

I am so pissed off right now that this shitty album and that SZA's even shittier album are both on this list and there's not a single fucking Robyn album here. Not one. It's as if this guy didn't even listen to the fucking chick albums and just picked the ones some other list told him to pick. Zero taste. Go to hell, douche! ps not your fault Charli but you also ain't that good.

Well, *that* was a depressing experience. Nothing like a high octane pop album by a name I kind of recognize but whose songs I failed to largely understand (literally), to reinforce how much I'm nowhere near the right age or mindset to be even remotely adjacent to the target audience. But on the positive side, I now have a face to put to the name Charli xcx, and now I finally understand what all those bizarre references to "brat summer" a couple of years ago were all about. The videos to "360" and "Von dutch" only added to the sense of the world moving on (not in a great direction. it seems), especially the bizarre argot at the beginning of "360" as they dissect the "look" of the waitress. (It kind of reminded of the quasi-secret language in the movie "Brick", but also sounded painfully like the conversations I've overheard with my tween/teenage nieces.) I'm not sure we really need *two* Charli xcx albums in this collection, especially since the other one is literally from 2026--how can you really know yet if it's a to-die-for album--but there you go.

So, this is Brat? This is the summer-defining album that I've been hearing about for the past two years? Okay, I get it. You all were right. This is a good album. Do I enjoy it as much as everyone else? Not quite, but it is close. I said it in the Wuthering Heights review and I'll say it again: Brat is the only album added in this update that is already 100% justified in being on this list. There are a few others that you could make the case for including, but Brat is the only album of this batch that sparked a genuine cultural phenomenon, which makes it the most significant by default. Plus, the green album cover has become iconic and Charli xcx has been successful for quite some time now, so I think it's only fair for her to have an album on this list, and seeing as Brat is the biggest moment of her career yet, I feel like it has to be the album of choice. But why did this album do as well as it did? Why did all of the critics love it? Well, I think it might be because the album is good. Crazy to think about, but it's true. Brat is a very good album. Do I need to say it again? At its core, Brat is a dance album. Its home is the club, but to suggest that it doesn't go any deeper than that would be a gross misunderstanding of the album. Yeah, the album's meant to make you dance, which it succeeds at, but there's also a ton of depth to the lyrics. Songs like the first two tracks "360" and "Club Classics" are about the club, but other songs like "Girl, So Confusing" and "Sympathy is a Knife" weave in personal feelings about fame, jealousy, memories, and more. Dare I say that the album even gets emotional at times, particularly on the track "So I," which is a touching tribute to the late SOPHIE. How does SOPHIE not have anything on this list, by the way? Whatever. The point is that Brat is more than meets the eye. But of course, if you just want some good dance music, you'll still get that. The production on these songs is great. The vocal effects on Charli's voice actually work well with the music. People treat autotune like it's the worst thing to happen to music since the death of John Lennon, but it has its places for use, and Brat is one of them. I like how the album starts and ends with the similar "360" and "365." It makes the album feel complete, which is always nice. It helps that the album's only about 40 minutes, which is practically the perfect album length. I'll admit that this isn't as "up my alley" as it was for many listeners when it released, but I still enjoyed Brat a lot. It's a got a little something for everyone, I hope. Brat Summer may be over, but there's never a bad time for an album like this. It's good, okay? Strong 4/5.

One of the most culturally relevant pop albums of the past few years, definitely deserves inclusion on the main list. It's fun balance between irrevenrent club bangers and some touching confessional moments. I thought it was interesting reading some of the reviews here, and the few one-star reviews that seem to completely miss the point, lacking even a basic curiousity on the background of the album or the cultural moment to only offer a simple curmudgeonly criticism of it lacking depth or being shallow.

Started out skeptical and sketchy. This grew on me a little over the course. Upgraded to a three in the end. Still not quite my thing, but some of it's alright.

I’m definitely way outside the target demographic, but it’s refreshing to hear modern pop music that doesn’t sound like it was sanded down to be as inoffensive as possible. 360, 365 and talk talk were my favorites.

Alright, so a serious question: why are the vocals on these 21st century young female artists selections all autotuned? I'm sure some of them can actually sing, maybe, but regardless we are in some next stage devolution in that the 21st century youth can hear something I can't? I know these entries are designed to even up the boring old white guy music that dominates this process, but surely there are some better records than this to do that? I think that is the point; I like listening to an eclectic range of music and the key for me is do they have something to say: musically, lyrically, performance the whole package. I mean this is as valid as say David Cassidy in 1973, if you get my point. He was huge, he had a moment, Cherish broke a few hearts but no one is sitting around listening to a David Cassidy album anymore, whereas millions listened to him in 1973. That's what this stuff is, in the moment zeitgeist pop, but are these records the ones we need to hear before we cark it? I listened to this aaaaaaaaaalllllllll the way through. Not good.

Definitely belongs in the main list.

Meh... there are some good songs, but it's not really my kind of music

Der krampfhaft chaotische, oft schrille Vortragsstil wird schnell anstrengend. Zudem sind viele der als „lustig“ oder „unbeschwert“ verkauften Skits und Lines schlichtweg extrem schlecht gealtert, wirken pubertär oder schlicht nervig („Ya Mama“). Wer den Sound der Golden Era sucht, findet hier zwar tolle Instrumentals, aber als Gesamtalbum verliert sich das Werk für mich zu sehr in alberner bis nervigen Anstrengung.

I hate giving this 4 stars because i feel like my age is showing

After her wuthering heights album, I was expecting to hate this. After the first couple of tracks I was mentally writing my review about how I don't get it and how old and out of touch I am etc. However, it really grew on me and I listened twice. I definitely don't think it's for me and it probably never really would have been, but I think I get why she is so popular now. Feels mostly like it's a party album, but I thought there were also some really genuine and honest feeling bits of it too. Maybe it's because it's all written in the first person? I liked "I might say something stupid" and "I think about it all the time". The amount of plays these 2 have on Spotify would suggest I'm not in the majority by liking these ones. That's ok though. This has gone some way to redeem the wuthering heights album so fair play Charli. You have earned my respect, which no doubt would be important to you. Not at all for me, but really grew on me and I think I get it, sounded really well produced too. I don't like the auto tune though... Guys....Did I just have my brat summer? 3

It's so confusing some times to be a girl Favorite song: Von Dutch

4/5. It’s crazy how long ago the “brat summer” of 2024 already feels. Almost seems like it was part of a different world at this point despite only being two years ago. This album was inescapable at the time, that specific shade of green and that specific font were everywhere online. Which in my opinion, it was nice to see Charli finally get her mainstream flowers as she’s been one of the more interesting figures in pop music for a while now. And Brat itself is a very good pop album, it blends together hyper-pop, electronic and that kinda trashy blend of 2000’s dance music. It’s often very playful whether that be on bangers like “club classics” or “Von Dutch” but is also not afraid to be more sincere when it matters like on “Sympathy is a Knife” or the Sophie tribute “So I.” The whole record also just flows extremely well, it feels like listening to a really good DJ set. Brat absolutely deserved the hype.

Nah this is based actually. I should've had a brat summer.

When the next edition of the book comes out, this will be removed. 2/5

very good

as this has only been out for two years i’m not sure it quite qualifies for this list…. although i’m not normally into this kind of music i do enjoy parts of it but i just don’t see it standing the test of time

I’ve heard this album before I got it generated here. I mean, it was almost impossible to ignore two summers ago. Although reviews seem to be mixed on the site so far, I really enjoy this! It’s a really fun and danceable and well produced pop record.

The only knowledge I have of Charlie xcx is that I remember she once headlined Glastonbury. Which year it was I’ve forgotten but I turned the transmission off as soon as she appeared. I reacted the same when I saw that she was today’s selection on my list. All day I’ve been mulling over in my mind how I should approach this album and what to say about it. I could go on and on about her worthiness to make the list, recency bias and how on earth can an album of no vintage whatsoever dislodge universally acclaimed ones for many years? I’d be willing to bet all my shackles that Mrs xcx, this album and any memory of her being on this list will be gone by the time the next edition of the book is published. No! But wait. Even more bad news! Just seen that her even more recent Wuthering Heights soundtrack album is also on the list now. As much as I’ve enjoyed going through this process makes me glad I’m within 70 albums of finishing. 1/5 2/11/26

Okay...how come, so suddenly, all these supposed great albums on this list have taken such a sudden shit turn? Another complete waste of my time. I will never get this time in my life back...It's lost to trivial, non-worthy crap. Another addition to the dust bin of history. I may like this a bit more than the ABBA albums, but barely. Still 1 "on par with an ABBA album" star. What's happened? This list was going strong, and suddenly filled with shit! Stop asking us to proffer albums....these albums don't belong anywhere near the best lists.

Not my jam, but not awful either for the genre/style.

I listened to this when it came out. I think I liked it more on this listen. It still confused me how big of an album this was. It's fine but I never got all the hype for it.

Mainstream pop. Nothing to rave about.

2/5

2.2

It is difficult to know if an album with the impact brat had will endure, since it feels so attached to a time and a place. But my god it has a good chance with music as entertaining and energetic aa this.

Here I am, 45 years old and listening to Brat in 2026. I feel like Steve Buscemi in the Fellow Kids meme. Luckily, I have teenage daughters who were happy to sing Apple for me and showed me the dance that is apparently mandatory to this song. So, I listened and I like this record a lot. My club days are long behind me, but I felt this music and would have loved dancing to this. I still can, obviously.

Nope. Don't get it. Way too much auto tune, they sound the same. Not for me.

PC Music meets mainstream in the best way

Enjoyable top 40. Not sure why it's here.

Not just a great album but captured a moment. Brat is banger after banger

Who paid to get this on the list?!???

A fair representation of this generation of dance pop. The tween in my house likes it, so I’ll give an extra half-star!

It was fine for the discotheque, but I could not recognize the end of the album and the start of another song by someone else of this genre (Slayyyter). So what makes it better than okay?

I think my main problem with Charli xcx is the processing of her vocals. She doesn't have a bad voice, so why make it sound so dumb? I think her voice sounded best on "I think about it all the time" I thought the best vocal melody was on Apple. The instrumentation was alright sometimes, but often reminds me of the era of dance music that made me stop watching music channels.

for when youre looking so hot

This was awful...

3/4

It was a culturally relevant album for many reasons, but it's such an awful collection of music that I need to rate it poorly. 1 or 2 songs are good (and may deserve a place in a list like 1001), but not the whole album, for sure.

It just sounds so good.

Not bad. I’m about 40 years too old to relate to these lyrics, but I do have some memory of being at that stage🤣. Some of the beats are catchy. I can see how it would be popular but wouldn’t expect it to necessarily have staying power.

Good album, there’s a reason this was everywhere

Fourth album of the new installment. All pretty awful. With any luck these will not be defining albums of the era

this is the only album of the new batch that really deserves to have been included imo. regardless of whether you think that it or Charli are good, if 20 years from now you want to trace the history of popular music and the waves of trends etc, this will be unavoidable. we're still feeling the effects of its influence and probably will for at least another year or two, even if it's not the most revolutionary or innovative album of all time or whatever. plus i think it fuckin rocks

Mid

Decent listen.

Brat Summer was such a time and place. A album so instantly iconic it owns a shade of green. This album is still fantastic. The remixes are great too.

Autotune, wat rave geluiden, pompende dance-achtige beats en een kneitergoede productie. Ik vind dit eigenlijk best wel lekker luisteren, al heb ik geen idee waar dit allemaal over gaat. Ik hou echt van goede producties die prettig klinken en waardoor je allerlei goede stofjes gaat aanmaken in je hoofd en daar valt dit wel onder. Verder kan ik niet echt bepalen hoe hoogdravend dit nou wel of niet is, maar boeiend. Het luistert lekker weg vandaag, ik hoef me niet door m'n huiswerk heen te ploeteren. 4 sterren voor de vrouw die ervoor zorgde dat een zomer lang de bh's in de kast bleven liggen. In de stad dan vooral, hier in het dorp was het minder zichtbaar.

Iconic ofc, everything is romatic ist unfassbar gut aber music Fashion film ist eif besser

“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". Charli xcx, Vogue Singapore April 2024 Highlights: Apple, Sympathy Is A Knife, I Might Say Something Stupid. Brat meets all the unspoken criteria for this book: Cultural phenomenon, award winner, established artist, British (Cambridge born), smart marketing for the album, adored by fans. And that shade of green… Brat reminds me so much of the Ministry of Sound Anthems compilations released in the late nineties and 2000’s. The rave and euro clash sounds. Prince’s synth-ony meets a slicker version of Katy Perry electropop (see Rewind). Sticky club floors, crying in the toilets at parties where you felt clearly out of place, wanna come to mine? Brat is one of “twenty albums that remind us of the 2020’s”. And always will be. Overall: 5/10

If I had decided to bet money on what albums would be included in the 2026 edition of the book, Brat would have been the safe choice. And deservedly so. There was massive cultural significance for a short time (although as someone who largely ignores social media these days, I missed the phenonome of 'Brat Summer'). But more than that, it's just a really well made album. I had initially written off Charli XCX as just another pop star and I ignored the hype around this album for ages. I don't know what finally convinced me to give it a try but it was probably a lot of people saying "No really, this album is incredible" that got to me. It's honestly a really impressive collection of songs. Drawing inspiration from the early UK rave scene, there are multiple songs you could almost mistake for Daft Punk tracks. "Von Dutch" sounds so much like Trent Reznor that I had to double check he hadn't produced it. The soundscapes are expertly crafted and the album carries a consistent intoxicating energy to it. While it certainly does owe a lot to 90s electronic music, it also does something that scene never did. It produced a unique star. While so much of that genre were introverted guys hiding behind turntables, samplers and synthesizers, Brat manages to sound really human. On the surface, Charli XCX is a self-described brat, constantly partying, and maybe just at the high point of her youth. But she also contrasts this with vulnerability, and a lot of self-doubt. She realises that her clubbing days only have so much time left and that she's slowly being left behind by friends who settling down. There's no conclusion to that debate as the album ends by revisiting the opening track, "360". The finale, titled "365" is a more brutal, loud and distorted closer, suggesting that, for now, Charli XCX was going to push those introspective thoughts away and enjoy while she could. This one is an easy 5 stars for me, as I've been listening to it for over a year now and there's not a single bad track.

I never really gave this album the time of day when it came out but I really enjoyed it

Middling modern pop music

If there was ever an album designed in a laboratory specifically for me to hate, it's this one. 0.5/5

1. 360 - 1 2. club - 1 3. knife - 1 4. zay - 2 5. talk - 0 6. dutch - 0 7. romantic - 1 8. reuuind - 1 9. zo - 2 10. girl - 1 11. apple - 2 12. b2 - 2 13. mean - 0 14. time - 1 15. 365 - 2

для любителей хайповых песен. немного качает.

It’s Brat summer once again. I’m left the same as when I first listened. I see the appeal but the lyrics are so shallow and the pop club music is fun but nothing special to me. Not sure why it became a whole event

Everything about it is so good. For sure a good album for motivation and singing along to

Ändå lite uppiggande. Är rätt stready pop. Tycker dock det är för nytt för att kunna få något högre betyg, man måste ge det 10 år. Stark tvåa.

På sjätte dagen skapade Gud ”brat”, och till sist människan. Snacka om euforin när refrängen till Talk Talk kommer igång. En modern klassiker som bara blir bättre ju mer man lyssnar den. FEM

En modern klassiker

Definately has some high points, but not the groundbreaking pop album that it is made out to be. I don't have a huge problem with it being on this list however. 3/5

Wait, what? They added Wuthering Heights AND Brat in the same update? 13 additions and 2 of them were Charli XCX? That’s mental. I can only begin to imagine the swathes of deserving artists from the last 5 years that didn’t make the cut. But anyway... As decent as WH is, it has no place on this list. Brat does. It’s at once knowingly trashy and superficial, but deeply vulnerable and honest, with meta, fourth-wall breaking lyrical asides that blur the lines between song and reality. Just as the album blurs the lines between cynical, manufactured pop and innovative, heartfelt artistry. Basically it all feels very modern and Gen Z (albeit made by millennials), and captured the zeitgeist the way not many albums do. A. G. Cook’s production is a big part of it, too; it’s practically all bangers. Which is probably the most important thing. 4.5

A pretty good album that stands as a monument to the power of internet-based marketing. Would be somewhat forgettable without #bratsummer

I actually hadn't listened to this yet. Really solid pop album. All the hard techno influence works great, I just wish it was harder.

brat is so of the moment for youth I wonder if anyone outside of that scope can understand it meaningfully. It fully encapsulates what it means to be in your mid/late 20's, watching everyone go through life around you while still participating in it yourself. You are looking to the past, anticipating the future, while trying to also live in the present. It's being anxious about what you've done so far and who you could be, while also partying because we're all going to die anyway so why waste any time worrying about it. Also drugs.

Best Song: Everything is romantic. That intense, driving bass is fantastic. Worst Song: So I. Just a plain, ordinary, slow pop track in the middle of much more interesting songs. Overall: Alright, I get why this album made such a big impact. It's big and sprawling and creative. I really like the maximalist production, where it feels just on the borderline of overwhelming as she keeps piling layer upon layer of sound.

Yeah it's a great album. I've probably listened to it 30 times in the past few years and every time I'm impressed by the production and how hooky the whole thing is. 9/10

When I go to the club (which is never) I want to hear THESE club classics (and also I’ll happily listen outside the club so I can pretend I’m there without having to deal with actually being there)

Exactly what being young and in the club sounds like

It's okay, nothing really stood out.

I heard a lot of hype about this album and i am so disappointed in the result. Definitely not worth the hype.

Deeply synth - multiple layers of synth doing basslines, high end melodies etc to give it a thoroughly artificial texture. The vocals are warbly from being auto-tuned to death and back to life. Her voice is breathy and heavily accented British with lots of cool little inflections and millennial oohhaaahhwaahhs and rap-sung verses a bit like The Streets. There’s a marked contrast between the synthetic sounds and the personal themes of the lyrics, dissociating both, keeping authenticity in suspense. It’s kind of medium paced and the beats are only medium sized - sounds like retail pop music more than dance music. Mall-Goth Katy Perry with all the subtlety of Avicii. But it's pretty fun when it goes nuts.

I listened to Brat close to when it came out, and I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really get the hype either. However, I did like Wuthering Heights, so maybe Brat will have more of an impact on me this go-round. I’m not a Charli XCX superfan after giving Brat another chance, but I enjoyed this re-listen quite a bit more than my first time listening to it. Brat really excels when Charli goes full dance pop, but it hits some snags when it goes into hyper pop territory. Charli’s synths are bright and full of life, and in a crowded field of synth pop acts, her arrangements are really unique. The lyrics and themes are raw, and I enjoyed the contrast with the polished and bold sound of the music. Even though Brat is a bit short of five stars for me, I think this is one of the few albums that can justify a spot on the official list, even though it’s not that old. Brat’s impact on culture was massive, and it catapulted a well-known artist into mega-stardom.

My first listen through was on a long car ride, nothing stood out, it sparked a conversation about the business of music, and became background sound. Tried again. This is a bunch of nothing.

3.4 2x catchy dance/edm style. SLC airport, massage at Xpress Spa

Not for me

Just a half step higher pitched than i want it to be. Catchy as all hell, especially 360, but I'll not seek this one out to play.

Three at best

This actually better than I thought! Not directly what I like but cool to listen to once.

3.3 Ok, not as good as wuthering heights admittedly, but still better than a lot of pop. Really couldn't get on board with the yasss girlzz tracks, like so confusing or mean girls. But I quite liked some of the other ones. The run of 4 tracks from Von Dutch is pretty good. Bit of a hit and miss album, definitely not as good as wuthering heights

I don't need to add to the discourse on this already much discussed record. Will not topple the unimpeachable Covid record How I'm Feeling Now for me but its a decent record. Between the initial release and the 'Brat and its completely different but also still brat' release, I think there's a 5* record in there for me. As it is I still prefer certain versions on either. Maybe I should make a playlist of my favourites. 365 takes the fun but slightly anodyne poppy 360 and goes properly hard. That's easily my favourite version of it on either record. Both versions are good and have dips, I feel like the 'completely different' version peps up some of the slightly boring mid album tracks of the original. But it takes the edge of some of the bangers like Sympathy is a Knife and Club Classics. 'So I' is a particular example that's way better on the 'remix' album, and really nice to have a Sophie tribute since Bruno MacDonald determined we weren't to have an actual record by her in the book at any point. Some I can't tell the difference but they're both great so it doesn't matter - Girl, so confusing. anyway, yeah, 4

It's just generic pop music. I get that she made a big splash with this album and it was all Brat Summer this and Brat Summer that but what about this is redeeming?

9.4/10

Favorite Track: 360