This summer was monumental for music, but one album in particular seemed to take over the internet, and the world. Charli xcx’s 8th studio album, Brat, was one to remember. The longtime pop star had been known for several club party hits including “Fancy” with Iggy Azalea, and a feature on Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” but she had never had an album peak as high as this one did. The album reached number 3 on Billboard’s Hot 200 chart, and she even had a new remixed version of the album come out on Friday, October 11th.
Her style has definitely changed and evolved over the past few years, and this album is a perfect representation of that. It covers insecurity in the industry and raw emotion, as well as confidence and self-love. In this review, I will do a track-by-track analysis of the album, explaining the meaning behind each song.
360
Charli opens the album with a golden song, 360. The track mainly centers around the club and city environment, as well as general confidence people should have in themselves. Lyrics are filled with pop culture references and funny quips. The production on this song is also something really innovative and different from other albums that came out this year.
Favorite Lyric: “I’m your favorite reference, baby.”
Club classics
Club classics is one of those songs you just hear and feel like you have to start dancing. The quick beat and repeating lyrics make it really fun and entertaining. There isn’t much else to say about this song other than the fact that it really is a club classic.
Favorite Lyric: “Yeah, I wanna dance to me when I go to the club.”
Sympathy is a knife
On this track, Charli starts to get more honest with her insecurities by explaining how it feels to have female rivalry in the industry. The track is rumored to be about fellow pop singer Taylor Swift, but nothing has ever been confirmed. Lyrics talk about how it can be hard to be pitted against another artist, while being so completely different from one another.
Favorite Lyric: “Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried, I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.”
I might say something stupid
This is another major vulnerable track from Charli, again referencing difficulties in fitting into the music or entertainment industry. The bouncy, excited, quick beats from 360 have simmered down to slow, sad chords. She talks about feeling as if she doesn’t belong, and that she shouldn’t even be at the point where she is today.
Favorite Lyric: “I’m famous but not quite, but I’m perfect for the background.”
Talk talk
After two pretty sad and sensitive songs, Talk talk helps pick things up a little. The same pumped up beat from Club Classics is back, but we’ve transitioned from self-confidence to more themes of love and lust. This track focuses on the idea that when two people have feelings for each other, they should simply communicate them by talking, not ignoring each other nervously.
Favorite Lyric: “Talk to me in your own made-up language, doesn’t matter if I understand it.”
Von dutch
Von dutch is similar to 360 in the sense that it’s about not really caring what other people think of you, because you know they just want to be you. Charli also dropped a remix to this song featuring Addison Rae back in March. The song went viral, and is now one of Charli’s most popular.
Favorite Lyric: “I get money, you get mad because the bank’s shut.”
Everything is romantic
This track is mainly about the beauties of life and how we should romanticize it to better enjoy it. Life isn’t really that serious and it’s better to live in the moment. A repeating lyric in the song is “fall in love again and again,” which could refer to the people you meet throughout your life, or just falling in love with life itself.
Favorite Lyric: “Pompeii in the distance, in a place that can make you change.”
Rewind
This is another hard hitting song by Charli. She recalls wanting to rewind and go back to a time where she didn’t over analyze her insecurities and didn’t have to worry about fans or paparazzi. She just wants to go back to when things weren’t so crazy and people weren’t watching her.
Favorite Lyric: “Wondering ’bout whether I think I deserve commercial success.”
So I
So I, is about a longtime collaborator of Charli’s, SOPHIE, who unfortunately passed away in 2021. The song is about having regrets in friendships. Charli would push SOPHIE away, because she was too busy thinking about herself. Charli tells SOPHIE that she would have kept her closer if she knew how things would end.
Favorite Lyric: “When I’m on stage sometimes I lie.”
Girl, so confusing
Very similar to Sympathy is a knife, this track circles around being a female artist in the industry and the comparison between women. It mentions how a woman can act so kind and friendly in public, while secretly hating you. Fans suspected that the song might be about fellow artist, Lorde, and it was confirmed after the remix to the song dropped featuring her.
Favorite Lyric: “One day we might make some music, the internet would go crazy.”
Apple
Apple is one of the most popular songs on the album, mainly because of its viral growth on TikTok. Someone made a dance to the track, and the rest was history. Full of metaphors and analogies, Apple compares how different stages in a relationship can be compared to how apples change and rot over time.
Favorite Lyric: “But I can’t help but get so angry, you don’t listen, I leave.”
B2b
There are a few different theories about what B2b or “back to back” is about. Some lyrics imply going back to a relationship in which the man is also seeing another woman at the same time as her. Other parts of the song could imply things about Charli’s career as a DJ. “Back to back” is a term used when 2 DJs are playing together, which might mean that Charli is now turning fully to electronic music, closing the chapter with pop.
Favorite Lyric: “I don’t wanna feel feelings.”
Mean girls
Personally, this is one of my favorites on the album because the songwriting is really fun. Charli describes what her idea of a “mean girl” is, and then proceeds to dedicate the song to them. While some of the references might be considered stereotypical, the song is just poking fun at “characters” that tend to get grouped into the idea of being mean girls.
Favorite Lyric: “And she’s kinda f****d up, but she’s still in Vogue.”
I think about it all the time
I think about it all the time is a little more serious of a song, but it’s not necessarily a sad one. Charli makes several remarks about motherhood and how she sees it in her future. She talks about seeing her friends become parents, and how in confusing moments, she wonders if she’ll run out of time to start a family and complete more personal goals in her life.
Favorite Lyric: “I think about it all the time, that I might run out of time.”
365
A hilarious and genius way of closing the album is to do a full 360, and turning into a 365 party girl. The final track starts off with the same beat and lyrics as the first. The lyrics are different from 360, but by very little. The purpose of this is to show that the album is just like life itself. It’s always on repeat, and it’s just a looping cycle. We’ve also circled back to the idea of partying and clubbing, just like 360.
Favorite Lyric: “I’m a brat when I’m bumpin’ that.”
