Charli XCX – ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ review: a masterpiece in the art of club music curatorship

14 October, 2024

Charli XCX

Constantly finding herself caught between the extremes of pop mega-stardom and underground cult hero status, Charli XCX has proven that she can create a home in the intersection of both worlds. On ‘Brat’, her phenomenon-sparking sixth album released in June, she gave a diva-like spirit to gritty electronic sounds and a leftfield edge to arena-filling chart toppers. But ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ – a new remix edition of the record – takes her curatorship skills to a new level of mastery. This album embodies a good club DJ set, experimenting with your arsenal of music and its sonic possibilities and using the strengths of each song to bring out the playful ways a collection of music can be enjoyed together.

READ MORE: It’s Charli XCX’s world and we’re just living in it: a timeline of ‘Brat’ summer

Some of the tracks from ‘Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat’ are USB-ready, propelled by percolating beats, wobbly basslines, brash synths and golden sample nuggets for the track ID hounds. ‘Club Classics’ with BB Trickz is anchored by deep basslines that create a hypnotic beat that pulls you in for the ride. The guesting Spanish rapper’s verse adds a layer of spice, giving a hue of mischief to an already heady track. Shygirl’s version of ‘365’ is two minutes of pure, unadulterated hedonism: “Too hot, when I sweat, just lick me / Touch and squeeze when the bassline hits me,” she sings. The rhythm pulses in rapid-fire waves, layered with distorted melodies and chaotic percussion, creating an intense sonic whirlwind akin to opening the door to a club and being hit in the face by a swell of sound.

Throughout the album, her selection of collaborators – both featuring artists and producers – suit the track they were recruited for. Their big-name status doesn’t take away from the layer of lore they add to the Brat-iverse, and they fit well with Charli stylistically and lyrically.

Standout ‘So I’ is a moving tribute to the incomparable SOPHIE, and it makes sense that for a track where Charli honours memories of her late friend, she’d keep it within her close circle and bring in A.G. Cook, SOPHIE’s peer and collaborator. It has the racing, glitchy, yet avant-garde qualities associated with SOPHIE’s production, including that on XCX’s earlier work, like her ‘Vroom Vroom’ EP. Elsewhere, picking The 1975’s Matty Healy to be part of a track which reflects on past mistakes is an apt choice. Paired with the ambience provided by Jon Hopkins, the finished ‘I Might Say Something Stupid’ remix gives way to an interlude of introspection amidst the flurry.

This remix album should be understood in context; it’s released four months post-‘Brat’, in a time when Charli is coming to terms with what it means to be a club rat in the limelight. After all, you can’t be a partygirl without the next day’s comedown. Certain aspects seem to reflect the influence of post-‘Brat’ mega-fame, like the Ariana Grande-featuring ‘Sympathy Is A Knife’, which explores the pressures of being under constant scrutiny from the press, public and fake friends (“It’s a knife when you’re so pretty, they think it must be fake / It’s a knife when they dissect your body on the front page”).

The new version of ‘B2B’ featuring Tinashe now includes a layer of meta-commentary, with Charli reflecting on being constantly booked and feeling “fucking tired” all the time, a woe she shares with Caroline Polachek in their version of ‘Everything is Romantic’: “Did I lose my perspective? / Everything’s still romantic, right?”

In some ways, ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ is a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms. She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form. ‘Brat’ could have easily been a stationary, isolated moment and remembered for being a neon green meme and a Kamala Harris campaign buzzword – but Charli XCX is too good to remain frozen in time, and she consistently proves so. Although, to her, her career “feels small in the existential scheme of it all”, as she laments in ‘I Think About It All The Time’, the bottom line is that, with her sparkling CV, she’s more than earned the high praise this album and the world around it have brought her.