Charli XCX Brat LP (Translucent Black Vinyl)

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the September 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

For her sixth studio album, the Dance/Electronic music album Brat, Charli XCX worked with the likes of Gesaffelstein and Hudson Mohawke.

In Charli's words:

"it's confrontational. it's confident. it's conversational. the lyrics are texts I would send to my friends. it's funny. it's fun. it's a club record so play it loud. i was born to make dance music.. i came from the clubs.. xcx6 is the album i've always wanted to make."

Though Crash may have made her a bona fide pop star, her sixth album's edgy sounds and soul-baring songwriting aren't the moves of an artist resting on her laurels. Any worries that Crash's conceptual slickness meant she'd forsaken the hyperpop that built her reputation as an innovator are put to rest as she revisits that style — as well as the sounds she grew up with as a club kid of the late 2000s and early 2010s — with raw eloquence... Even if she's somewhere between an insider and an outsider, XCX never sounds uncertain. By being a brat — defying expectations, choosing herself — she delivers some of her most engaging and mature music.

Each layer of the instrumentals on BRAT are clear and distinctive, weaving together with her assorted vocal deliveries and laid-bare lyrics. The record swerves amongst tangled rhythms, invigorating pop epics, and vulnerable ballads.