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Charli XCX: Is it time to say goodbye to Brat Summer?
Ever since ambitious, maverick British pop star Charli XCX released her excellent sixth album, Brat, in June 2024, a wave of excitement has swept through social media. Already seen as one of our favorite records of the year, the album has launched the “Brat Summer” trend, which has become a fashion, societal and even political phenomenon. But as autumn approaches, how long will this phenomenon last?
Traduction by Emma Naroumbo Armaing
By Violaine Schütz.
and Jordan Bako.
Brat by Charli XCX: one of the best albums of 2024
In 2022, the 32-year-old British singer and hyperpop princess went completely wrong with her album Crash, a bubblegum pop record sweetened to the point of overdose.
But with her new album Brat, released on June 17th, 2024, Charli XCX takes a new turn and makes us forget all about her previous crash. As a tribute to underground culture and to the London rave scene in which the singer grew up, Brat chooses to return to less mainstream, sanitized sounds.
Produced by A. G. Cook, Easyfun, Hudson Mohawke and Gesaffelstein, the hyperpop, electroclash, pop, acid house and dance songs leave plenty of room for boldness and experimentation. Yet, Brat is also packed with great hits, such as Von Dutch, Mean Girls, or 360 and its wild video featuring Julia Fox and Chloë Sevigny.
The remix of Girl, So Confusing with Lorde
The album also stands out thanks to its lyrics, which evoke the harassment of female celebrities, grief, anxiety, love, desire, femininity, rivalry and self-esteem.
In Girl, So Confusing, Charli XCX dives head-on into her complicated relationship with another woman in the music industry: the singer Lorde. This allusion made in the original track led to a spectacular remix featuring Lorde herself. The two stars explore their bittersweet relationship, at the crossroads between rivalry, friendship and respect, against a backdrop of devastating synthpop. Sympathy is a Knife could well be a reference to Taylor Swift. The whole of pop culture is fair game…
Brat’s minimalist cover foreshadowed the risks the artist was about to take. More vulnerable and rough than usual, Charli XCX puts down the “pop brat” panoply on this album to show a more raw and melancholy, diary-style part of herself. The track
Everything is romantic, for instance, appears as one of the most addictive tracks of 2024.
Is the “Brat Summer” dead?
With this complex and invigorating record, which the singer describes as “the most aggressive and confrontational” of her career, but also the most “vulnerable”, the little brat moves to the top of the list of the most exciting artists of the year and of her time. As Rosalía did with her album Motomami (2022), she is redefining today’s aesthetic and musical canon.
Last summer, all the girls and boys, including actor Kyle MacLachlan, who filmed himself singing Charli XCX’s songs, wanted to be Brats, or the anti-tradwifes and anti-clean girls, and dressed in neon green, with one of the album’s best punchlines as their motto: “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia” (a direct reference to the ubiquitous Julia Fox).
With her latest album, Charli XCX has indeed launched a real phenomenon – the “Brat Summer”. The singer even shared to the BBC the essential starter pack for a brat girl summer: “a pack of cigs (which are dangerous, ed.), a BIC lighter and a strappy white top with no bra”.
A brilliant duo featuring Billie Eilish
One can add a leather mini-skirt, a futuristic pair of glasses, Miista boots, an oversized eyeliner and a Y2K-inspired dress to complete the look. Watchwords are a touch of disorder, an uninhibited mindset in addition to a lot of self-confidence and freedom. A delightful program…
Except that a few weeks later, the color green and the choreographies made to the rhythm of Charli XCX’s Apple are everywhere, from Linkedin posts to the social platforms of Kamala Harris’ supporters. A specific Instagram account reused the album’s codes to fight against the rise of the far right during the last French elections.
More insane still, an advertising campaign for sausages is riding the trend. That’s all it took for the prestigious magazine Pitchfork to declare “Brat Summer is dead”. Too many memes would have killed the Pantone 3507C meme.
But that was overlooking Charli XCX’s talent and mischievousness. A few days after the article was published, the singer released a remix of her track Guess (2024) featuring a special guest: Billie Eilish. In the deliriously, sexy music video of the song, the two pop stars fall and sink in a pile of underwear – 10,000 pieces of lingerie that were then donated to I Support the Girls, an organization that distributes basic essential items to homeless people. A wave of overexcited comments swept social media. So is it a safe bet to say that August will be just as bratty as July was…?
Talk Talk, a powerful duo with Troye Sivan
After a summer punctuated by Charli XCX’s irreverence, some might have expected the phenomenon to take a bow as temperatures cooled. A simple tweet, “goodbye forever summer brat”, posted by Charli XCX on September 2nd, set more than one Internet user on that track. A farewell that the singer cut short, as she posted another tweet, this time a snapshot of herself alongside her long-time collaborator (and friend!), Troye Sivan, the following day. Set against a pink background, the two artists sport a white tank top with the words “About f***ing time!” printed on it.
There is a rumor going around about this famous T-shirt: anyone wearing it would be involved in a new edition of Brat. Paris Hilton, Madonna, Hayley Williams (Paramore) and PinkPantheress have all recently been spotted wearing similar tank tops… Is Charli XCX about to bring our wildest dreams to life?
In the meantime, Troye Sivan is the new artist to be canonized in a Brat remix. Following in the footsteps of Addison Rae, Robyn and Billie Eilish, he can be heard on a reinterpretation of the track Talk Talk, driven by a frenzied bass line. A great comeback for this tandem, already heard on the track 1999 (2018), an ode to Y2k fashion spiced up with a touch of irony. Dua Lipa is also on board, whispering in French and Spanish into the microphone at the beginning and end of the track, her voice enhanced by the club atmosphere of the remix.
H&M, remix album… What will the post-Brat era be made of?
Will there ever be a post-Brat era? Charli XCX is far from having said her last word. On September 12th, she became one of the faces of H&M’s new Fall/Winter collection, next to Sega Bodega, Loli Bahia, Arca, Lila Moss and Sage Elsesser. Described as “bold, modern and refined”, the collection features a cameo of motifs and references, partly inspired by the timeless charm of Hollywood cinema.
This date also marks another great news for the British singer. In a post featuring the same graphics as the Brat cover, Charli XCX announces the release of a remix album, modestly called Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
According to Pitchfork, this new edition includes all the remixes that have been released up to now, along with unknown versions of Brat’s songs. It features collaborations with artists such as PinkPantheress, Grimes, Dua Lipa, Caroline Polachek, Madonna, Shygirl and Rosalía.
The anti-trend has now become the trend, and one of the most persistent. We can only hope that this upcoming version of one of the best albums of 2024 will be as glowing as the original.
Brat (2024) by Charli XCX, available now. Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat by Charli XCX, available on October 11th, 2024.
