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.

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.

Such a memorable start Love it 4

Absolute shite but why did I really like it??

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.

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

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.

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.