Jeff's Best of 2024 - #2: Charli xcx - brat

I am aggressively not the target audience for Charli xcx, and brat is arguably the pop star at her least accessible. Which, of course, is why it's the surprise smash hit of the year in general, but also probably why I love it so much.

I have a soft spot for the whole A.G. Cook / Hyperpop thing, and Charli XCX has always played in that area even if not fully committing to it. brat is probably the closest thing to merging the two ideas together, and it means a lot of early chaos with "360" and "Club Classics" before getting really personal. "Sympathy is a Knife" is probably about Taylor Swift, "Girl, So Confusing" is definitely about Lorde, and "I Think About It All the Time" about her biological clock. The album runs the gamut between absolute club bangers and devastating confessionals, with layers that only reveal themselves over multiple listens.

Given that it's also the current trend to release albums over and over again to goose their chart positions, the fact that Charli xcx didn't only get a bunch of heavy hitters in for the "remixes," but in the case of Lorde, actually got an amazing call-and-response confessional from her, and "Guess" features Billie Eilish in the most fun she's had since "Bad Guy" took over the world. It's not very often that the rerelease enhances the original, but brat comes along and arguably improves upon it.

brat is for new adults, first and foremost. Not mid-40s men with a mortgage. Yet, somehow, this album hit me just right, over and over and over again.

Songs of note: "Guess," "Sympathy is a Knife," "Apple," "Girl, So Confusing"