Brat

Most people will probably listen to this without looking deeper into the actual meaning of the entire album and give it a low rating. It comes with themes of confidence, generational trauma, self-doubt, and social anxiety. Some of the songs are growers and others you like right away. The Brat remix album is also incredible. I suggest you check that out if you dig this. Those grammy wins are 100% deserved.

This is a fantastic album full of EDM club bangers (360, Club classics, Talk Talk, B2b, Mean Girls, 365), but also beautiful slower tracks (So I, I Might Say Something Stupid). I'm not a fan of autotune, Charli xcx knows knows how to use it in an inventive way though (like Bon Iver does). The instrumentation is full of sophisticated bleeps and sounds. The production is very impressive. The remix/collaboration album "Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat" is also great.

Hell fucking yeah man. Thanks to whoever put this on the list already. I will say that I highly recommend listening to this in the right situation. I first listened to this while doing dishes just to see what the hype is all about and didn’t like it that much, but then I listened to it while drunk and blasting it through my headphones and it became my album of the year instantly. It’s an album that’s meant to be danced to and used for specific moods and situations, which lists like this are bad at getting across. Like if I was listening to this just in the name of the list I’d probably have gotten annoyed by it but I actually spent some time with it and then xcx became my top artist of 2025.

Rating: 10/10

Obviously I'm aware of what a anachronistic old curmudgeon this makes me sounded like (and hell, maybe if the shoe fits, wear it), but my heart always kind of sinks when I look at the credits of an album and only see one singer along with 17 different flavors of mixers, masterers, and engineers. As long as I'm grousing about the kids these days I'll also out serve that I have no idea how well this person can sing because everything is autotuned to hell and back. That being said, for this kind of fully programmed music this is high tier product, and with a lot of the lyrics there is something more substantial than usual there. The singing works well - to be fair in spite of my prior comment autotune can't make a bad singer good (though it can make a weak singer sound a lot stronger than they are), for all I know she may be a great singer, since the effects are clearly intentionally obvious and part of the composition. Solid material, not so much my thing.

It's hard not to roll my eyes at "brat". Every 5 years or so, pop music spits out a new <collective noun for a group of hot, young white chicks with daddy issues> who pretend they've just invented being a hot young white girl with daddy issues. Ariana Grande? Katy Perry? Miley Cyrus? Avril Lavigne? Christina Aguilera? (whatever, you get the point). We've been there, we've done that. So it's mostly with this in mind that I'm going to listen to Charli XCX, who -from what little I've read- really, REALLY fancies herself as a trailblazer in being hot and dangerous. They all do, but given what a PHENOMENON brat has become, she must be reeeaaally unique. Maybe Charli XCX really IS way more of a "vibe" than Ke$ha ever was. lol. Either way, time to find out what the deal is. Update halfway through: this is... terrible. fuck. I was expecting the childish lyrical themes, the obnoxious attitude and all that, but... I didn't expect it to sound like shit. I was expecting a whole lot more talent, tbh. The vibe isn't so much "brat" as "housing estate trash". I guess maybe that's cool now? End update: overall, just garbage. I'll be very surprised if BRAT is remembered as anything more than an embarrassing phase in 10,15 years. The whole thing was basically jolty pop tunes with a bit of a UK club scene sheen on it. Autotune was constant. The edgy attitude was old about after all of 2 minutes. I was expecting to call it dog shit in advance, then listen, eat my words and maybe rewrite half the review. But it's the opposite: it's SO MUCH WORSE. It doesn't even have the appealing qualities (catchy songs, mostly) that previous iterations of this trope did. It's just... it's bad. Plain and simple. In short, this gets a 1/5. Why? Because 30 years ago, 1995 had Fiona Apple. She didn't start the trend either, but she was 10x hotter, 10x more dangerous and she could fucking write a song and sing it with 10x the talent, passion and creativity. Charli XCX is a bad imitation of an imitation of an imitation and it's only popular because 2025's teenage girls don't know any better. Fuck this. 1/5.

Absolute shite but why did I really like it??

no one told me Charli was British and I feel like that needs to be a trigger warning. The album color is clearly a reference to mushy peas. I can smell the fish and chips from here. But also this was fun and I had a good time.

Some context that may influence my rating: I didn't listen to this until now, mainly because I was dating someone super cool last Spring who dumped me for their best friend and uninvited me from their brat release party. Which was a major bummer for sure. Then I had to see it all Summer and be reminded that I was alone and sad. Not a great time! So, on first listen, I understand the hype – this is some great modern electronica with pop elements, and I really enjoyed the production which usually makes or breaks an LP for me. It's catchy, slick, and still maintains some creativity even for a mainstream breakthrough that does seem a little engineered for radio play. However, there's just something missing to glue the whole effort together – each track has plenty of personality, but as a whole the album doesn't gel into a greater sum of its parts. It feels like this could be a comp or a few EPs grouped together, and the best albums are a complete artistic product. Again, some external influences at play with my perception here, but I wanted a greater impact from this one at the end of the day.

I might regret this, because this is the kind of thing that could age badly.

Has a hyped pop album ever lived up to the hype as well as this? It's pop, but it's savagely skewering pop while loving it, while drawing in the more avant sensibilities of PC music and talking about some really emotionally complex stuff. Anyone who says there aren't any geniuses left these days hasn't heard this with the right ears. Although it's missing Guess, and the Caroline Polachek version of everything is romantic. I'd want brat and its completely different but also still brat included as part of this.

Review: Yes, the word 'pop' can be found in the 'hyperpop" tag, even though the layers of irony and hypertextual recycling used in that particular scene (including by Charli xcx herself) have often hampered its readability for a more mainstream audience. It's not so easy for a newcomer to the genre to have access the immediate pleasure of good melodies when there is so much pastiche going on at the same time -- and when said pastiche straddles the fine line between conceptual winks and plain bad taste within a song in a matter of seconds... In other words, hyperpop is often more "hyper" than truly "pop". How many devastating choruses or memorable synthetic hooks have there been so far in that genre ? Very few, and it takes the cake, really! Outsider listeners of that scene could therefore take the latter with a huge grain of salt -- until Charli made the waves she had always dreamed of at last, even spelling such ripples out for popular culture at large, thanks to those low-resolution Arial letters on the neon green cover of *Brat*. For anyone with ears that can tolerate an admittedly excessive use of Auto-Tune, many of the criticisms routinely thrown at the hyperpop genre thus risk becoming moot after this record. Because, beyond all the memes and the TikTok trends, *Brat* is also an album that reconnects with the requirements of the great game-changers of the past, surprisingly enough. Which is maybe how it will actually stand the test of time. Charli's latest checklist is impressive for sure, at least. A string of bangers without a single dull moment in and in between them? Check. A wide array of intents and moods that paradoxically strengthen the overall cohesion of the project? Check. A narrative drive which resonates with such musical dynamism, seeing Charli go from a superficial party girl to a more touching young woman afterwards? Check. The delirious and abrasive confidence of A.G. Cook's production (also responsible for the quite notable *Britpop* in 2024), along with the contributions of Keane, Gesaffelstein, Hudson Mohawke or Cirkut, here dusts off an electronic field that has often been threatened by inertia and artistic dead ends in the last few years. And the result will probably sound exhilarating for most fans of dancefloor-oriented shenanigans with strong French Touch influences Yet it is most specifically Charli's touch -- her millennial girl energy and sensitivity, not caring for one second about expectations and usual social "codes" (so as to better create her own?) – that makes Brat a true phenomenon. 'Bumping that' for sure. List of songs: The iconic opener "360" ; the hedonistic, ketamine-driven "Club Classics" ; "Sympathy Is A Knife", with its elated, stellar chorus ; the suddenly introspective and minimalistic "I Might Say Something Stupid" ; the somewhat cheesy and yet 100% efficient "Talk Talk" ; absolute banger "Von Dutch, with its incredible drop and infectious synth hook ; "Everything Is Romantic", with its string section, its crazy flute loop hearkening back to Björk's *Utopia* and its part-hectic, part-cinematic atmosphere. You can really see "Capri in the distance" listening to that one, with sunrays blinking on and off on Charli's face as she drives on Italian roads... The second half of the album then starts with "Rewind", with its tongue-in-cheek displaying of nostalgia and apt tape sound gimmick to illustrate the latter ; "So I" is a heartfelt ballad which also serves as an emotionally complex tribute to SOPHIE ; "Girl, So Confusing", harbors a distinctive feminine perspective in its lyrics (which allow Charli to mend fences with Lorde, of all people) and therefore makes the best of its bouncy instrumental ; "Apple" then struts along in a tongue-in-cheek, happy-go-lucky, meme-worthy demeanour ; "B2B" explores tighter, moodier, and more hypnotic harmonies ; "Mean Girls" is kind of wild, and it has that fun and groovy piano part at the end ; and the last proper song in the album is "I Think About It All The Time", a straightforward confession that sees Charli reflecting on potential motherhood and her wish to slow down at last. Finally, here comes outro "365", a high octane, cocaine-fuelled version of opener "360" that sees Charli forget all the good resolutions uttered in the track before -- because, well, she will always be a "brat" at heart, won't she? The cycle can thus start all over again. Yeah, I know, I know... Sometimes the lyrics may sound a little daft if the songs are taken individually. But as a whole, this record also tells a very specific story, and it's actually not that hard to relate to it even if you're not part of its core audience. And the musicality and energy are relentless anyway. [The "review" before the "list of songs" section up there is actually adapted from a short one I wrote for the Mowno music website, here translated from the French language. If you want to read the shorter original in its original language, you can find it thanks to the link below] https://www.mowno.com/articles/selection/session-de-rattrapage-les-oublies-de-2024/ Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 8 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Such a memorable start Love it 4

Catchy and bouncy and vibrant and fun! Solid and thoughtful lyrics that keep things interesting when you dig deep, and the production is fantastic as well. I don't think that I'm as deeply in love with it as everyone else seems to be, but it's definitely a cool album and an enjoyable experience and makes for a memorable summer album.

Some real bangers on here and interesting themes tackled too. The remix album is also good. There are a couple of tracks that bring it down from a 5, but this is good solid pop dance.

I guess a lot of younger people are listening to this list… as there seems to be an awful lot of suggestions for this list from the last several years. I guess that’s not a terrible thing. Charli xcx is one of those names I keep hearing but have no idea who they are or what they are about. If I have heard any songs from them I didn’t know it. Probably a good idea to give it a listen, so here goes… Well, I honestly got a little bored in the middle, but there were enough good songs to keep me going for the most part. Not for me, but I appreciate it. It’s easy to see why it’s great for a lot of someones.

I'm having a Brat kind of year with this album

Pretty neat album. It has good energetic beats. A really unique style.

I've heard about this album a lot, since it was apparently the album of the summer, but I haven't listened to it now. It's always fun when a pop album turns out to be well-constructed. Charli xcx certainly has odd pop sensibilities, but it really works here. The music is fun, and her voice sounds wonderful over it. The album is really versatile in terms of its sound too 4/5

I would probably enjoy this more if not for the autotuning. I just don't get it, it sounds dumb to me. Other than that it's not bad. 3 stars.

This sounded very, very modern. Quite catchy and funny. Rating: 3/5 Playlist track: Girl, so confusing Date listened: 27/02/25

Electropop, club-pop, hyperpop, dance, electroclash. Ni fu ni fa.

This album just came out so kind of interesting this is someone’s favorite album ever. It is a decent modern club pop album. It’s easy to listen to and better than any other charli album. It still gets repetitive at times and some songs just arent as good as others. Overall has its fun pop hits but whether it will still be relevant years later is unknown. 6.5/10

I thought Brat summer was supposed to save our society but that turned out not to be true. Now I know why

Catchy and danceable, but overtuned, overprocessed and generally unmemorable. The lyrics are probably the best part, revealing some surprising moments of depth. Glad to have had a chance to hear this, but I don't see myself listening to it again. Fave Songs: Apple, I Might Say Something Stupid, Sympathy Is a Knife, So I

The cover is not a burst of creativity but it is heard quickly due to its fluidity, it is appreciated that it is an album that has "joy" and rhythm. It is definitely youthful music to dance to at parties and clubs, but it is also enjoyable even if you are not a young person. I immediately recognized the Royal Rumble theme, so I appreciate you bringing it to me.

I enjoyed watching Charli XCX on Saturday Night Live this year. I didn't quite love this album that much.

I have no really strong views on this, either way. I mean, asides from shifting the definition of "brat" a lot closer to "basic bitch", this is broadly a disposable pop album that'll disappear from consciousness as quickly as, say, P!nk's "the truth about love". The vocal effects are distracting to the point of mild annoyance, but the basic poppiness of the album means that it is only mild. I guess I'm absolutely not the target demographic for this. Picture Lucille Bluth saying "Good for her!" and you're probably about where I am on this.

Too much auto tune, and oh my the accent. Other than that, a good time.

Girl

This album has been so hyped up this year, but this is my first time listening to it, I agree it should be added to the list, but it’s not really my personal taste in music, so doubt I’ll come back to it, but glad I took the time to finally listen to it.

Too much unnecessary usage of autotune. This one got boring real fast

I just don't get it

Makes me think less about "the club" and more about being drunk and taking an uber home in NYC. I don't really care for this kind of music, but later book editions definitely gotta dip into some of their Techno budget to put more stuff like this in there.