Love how she repurposed the titles of tracks like turning b2b on its head from a relationship to non-stop work, or turning talk talk from a hook-up to a house party, this for me is where the concept works so well
My top 5:
1. Girl so confusing - I’m kind of over this one now cause it’s been out for a while but this version 100% surpasses the original in every way and it undeniably the most poignant moment from this whole brat era
2. Everything is Romantic - This would be my number one if it wasn’t for the icon level of girl so confusing. This is what I wanted out of a brat remix album. Love that it’s a conversation, love the mood, middle 8 vocals insane as always v good
3. I think about it all the time - I just knew this would be good and it was, love the rearrangement, Bon iver and charli‘s voices together works surprisingly well
4. So I - A wonderful re-contextualised narrative around grief - I hope it felt very healing for charli and ag
5. 365 - so good, tied with club classics pretty much for me, but this trumps it because of how explosive it is
Low points for me:
I’ve never like the Addison Rae verse since von Dutch remix dropped, but her scream on the end of the track is so sick. the original version of Von Dutch just can’t be touched idk
Rewind w bladee just didn’t do it for me, though I like charli’s new verse
Sympathy is a knife was disappointing, don’t really like the new hook, think the vocals sound clunky tbh but still cool we got to see charli/ Ariana collab
Only real skips for me are the rewind and von Dutch remixes
Oct 12, 2024
Related Recs
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MY SIS BETTER LEAVE WITH SOMETHING!!!! And my faves and my thoughts:
- Really liked the remixes a lot!!! (wish Rosalia was on it, but we cant win all the time)
- THE LAST MINUTE OF I might say something stupid w/the 1975 and Jon Hopkins (took me back to their self titled album days omggggg)
- Everyone who hates Everything is Romantic w/ Caroline Polachek (niggachek as we‘d be remiss to forget that.) CANT BE TRUSTED!!!!!
- Apple w/ The Japanese House was fun and I absolutely didn’t expect her to be a white woman at all.
- B2B w/ queen Tinashe was so fucking perfect i could cry.
- I think about it all the time w/ bon iver made me want to cry millennial-style tears.
- ANDDD 365 with ShyGirl was wayyyyy too short. so good though.
Oct 11, 2024
I just need a place to spill my thoughts.
About the Best Pop Album of the Year(so far)
I've listened to the album a couple more times, and it just keeps getting better.
Charli XCX has attempted several times to fully return to her pop persona: first with the ambitious "Charli", then the wayward "Crash". In the former, she tried to retain her hyperpop identity while sounding commercially appealing (which went well), and in the latter, she gambled on simplicity and nostalgia for pop music from different eras (which did not go as well). "BRAT" is interesting because it lacks both futuristic hyperpop and gloss, but it does have that Charli XCX that some have probably missed for about 10 years.
Don’t get me wrong, the "vroom-vroom-n1a-pop 2-charli-hifn" streak I still consider the most powerful in modern pop music—but there's a segment of the audience that knows Charli only from "Boom Clap" and "I Love It". I had never thought about it, but it's "SUCKER" that actually represents Charli—because if that iconic encounter with PC Music and SOPHIE had never happened, Charlotte's music would have sounded quite different. I suppose somewhat like "BRAT".
The heavy rolls of synths in "Sympathy is a Knife", the electroclash buzz in "Girl, so Confusing", the cosmic French house in "B2B", and the acid drop in "365" deliberately take the listener back about ten years, to when the grass was greener, and pop stars released COOL music. The album even has a very successful attempt to replicate the formula of "I Love It"—that track is "Mean Girls", one of the most powerful from the release. Charli asserts that "BRAT" is her favorite album, and this is one case where I'm ready to take the artist at her word. It’s entirely possible that she could have released such an album back in the mid-2010s—because here we have in full glory the crazy and somewhat ridiculous lady, retaining all the audacity and indifference that initially made people love her.
Amid all the genre diversity and fun, there's a thoughtful production by George Daniel, A.G. Cook, Gesaffelstein, and Hudson Mohawke—the album rocks and is rich in emotions, only occasionally interrupted by depressive revelations. Charli reminisces about her late friend SOPHIE and regrets what's lost, and toward the end of the album even dedicates a whole track to potential motherhood: "I constantly think that I’m wasting time, but what if I have a child—would it give my life meaning?". Against the backdrop of Taylor Swift’s kilometers-long dull poems (who, by the way, Charli disses on the album), such honest lyrics become a breath of fresh air. We cry a little, talk about important things, and continue to dance.
And then one must recall that "BRAT" is essentially a club album. You can’t just move to "Von Dutch" and "Club Classics"—you need to jump and rave. But here, perhaps, lies the main drawback of the album—the strange track order, as well as about three lyrical digressions, spoil the overall picture of the forty-minute party. The situation should be rectified by a remix album, which will bring this Charli era to a logical conclusion—if you don’t believe me, just check out her explosive set at Boiler Room.
Ariana Grande releases neat pop-R&B, Billie Eilish and Finneas make music for critics, Taylor Swift tortures fans with folk ballads, and Dua Lipa… what was that even? Charli bursts into this whole pop paradigm with force, releases her most successful album in years, makes everyone set provocative green squares with brief text as their profile picture, and brings so much energy to the scene, more than any other pop album this year. And I’m totally satisfied with that arrangement: both as a fan and as an unbiased listener.
I've got this huge text about Billie Eilish's and Dua Lipa's albums that I need to finish, but I'm feeling too lazy right now. Maybe I'll tackle it tomorrow.
Jun 10, 2024
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charli is really taking it on this remix album. and that's me saying that on a first listen! i feel like og BRAT walked so rmx BRAT could run.. lemme explain
i know in her zane lowe interview she mentioned that she thought OG Brat would tank commercially and it would be a record only her fans understand. But obviously due to it's success, i see brat rmx as a space for her to really stretch the limits of her sound and experiment.
im also so happy bc she REMIXED these songs... not just throwing a bunch of features on, calling it a deluxe and pushing more units. these remixes are fresh takes on their originals and the features further expand the sonic universe charli has created with brat
Oct 12, 2024
Top Recs from @shredddflanders
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took a spontaneous trip to see the new alien movie today
ive never been to see a horror movie alone at the cinema before so it felt all the more immersive for me, would recommend going to get scared alone even if you’re a scaredy-cat like me :)
Aug 28, 2024
if you got a question for the lizzie McGuire 8 ball let me know and I’ll see what she says
Nov 7, 2024
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it's about health anxiety and ig anxiety in general (plenty to go round)
Feb 8, 2024