This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Emma Zumbo. Find her on Instagram at @emmarzumbo. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
With its lime-green, low-res, one-word, “graphic design is my passion”-esque cover, Charli XCX’s newest album, brat, began to generate buzz before it even dropped. The British born pop girl has been in the public eye for years, stamping her name on iconic songs like Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and Icona Pop’s “I Love It”, but while the presence of her passionate fan base never failed to be felt on stan twitter, her solo career remained quieter. That’s all changed thanks to her latest album. With brat, Charli is finally getting her flowers from critics and public alike.
The album is a sonic mix that’s an ode to early 2000s club music that also manages to be entirely original and boundary pushing. Perhaps even more than the music, it’s the vibe of the album that’s captivated people – harkening back to an era of pop culture that seemed more hedonistic and brash than the current one, when It Girls stumbled bleary eyed out of club doors in the early hours of the morning, when going out was a messier affair and phone cameras did not quite yet crowd the dance floor. Perhaps it’s a growing collective desire to let loose, or the fact that Charli’s brand, so to speak, has gone hand in hand with a niche internet subculture of hot cool girls that people want to emulate, but whatever it is, one thing is clear- this is officially a brat summer. So, if you’ve somehow managed to miss all the hype, it’s time to pop in your headphones and press play on the album of the moment, and once you’ve done that, you can come back here and see if you agree with my opinion on the 15 songs of this record. This is brat Charli XCX ranked:
15) Talk Talk
I’ll be honest, I love the entire album start to finish, so putting this in the last spot doesn’t necessarily mean I think it’s a bad song. It’s just the one I most see myself skipping on a re-listen. The lyrics are cute not but not exactly cutting and this track was just a little less exciting to me than the rest.
14) Sympathy Is A Knife
I really admire Charli’s ability to mesh raw lyrics with a not-so-stripped-down production. This song has drawn interest because of its potential to be about Taylor Swift. Whether that’s true or not, I was more drawn to the other stripped down tracks on the album.
13) So I
An ode to Charli’s late mentor and friend, the iconic SOPHIE. Beautifully written, gives voice to complicated feelings, and necessarily a slower pace than the rest of the album. A perfect song to sway to.
12) Apple
This song is now on my official pre-trip, taxi ride to the airport playlist. I can picture myself getting car sick to this in traffic stressing about making my flight even though I’m three hours early (yes, I’m that traveler) – that’s the thing, I can bop to this but maybe not fully rave out to it.
11) B2B
I thought I didn’t like this until the beat drop came. Wait for the drop. It transports me to that moment in the night when the group is getting tired and someone is about to suggest you head home but then a certain song starts playing that makes you push through the sleepiness and you end up having the time of your life.
10) Rewind
Sometimes I also want to rewind back in time, Charli. This song makes me long for the afternoons after school spent gossiping on MySpace and pirating songs to download and burn onto a CD to then bring out to play for my friends later that night, even though I was born in 2001, so I never did any of those things.
9) 360
A great opening track. A remixed version closes the album, and I like that one better, but this really gets you into a bratty mood.
8) I Might Say Something Stupid
Club rats have anxiety too. Not all nights spent socializing make you feel great – this is the song you need when you’re walking back from a party where you felt a little off the whole time and you need someone to help you just feel your feelings.
7) Club Classics
Quite simply, I want to go to the club and dance to this. I suspect we’re gonna be hearing this one for a while because it’s so incredibly remixable.
6) I Think About It All The Time
“I think about it all the time, that I might run out of time” hits a little too hard. Listening to this on every birthday from now on to encourage my necessary yearly birthday cry.
5) Girl, So Confusing
Probably the one song you’ve heard most from brat thanks to the Lorde remix. The Lorde feature absolutely makes this. An important and very honest song, and one that also sounds great!
4) Mean Girls
More exploration of girlhood. I can trick myself into thinking it’s 2002 and I’m getting ready for a night out with Paris Hilton with this one. One of those songs that makes you think your life is a movie.
3) Everything Is Romantic
This song makes me feel like I’m driving a speedboat wearing a stylish silk headscarf, and no I won’t be elaborating further than that. Maybe I like it so much because I’m Italian.
2) Von Dutch
Somehow encapsulates the feeling of saying something catty while chewing a piece of gum. Instantly iconic. The way Charli says “but I still pop” will be replaying in my head while people attempt to ask me a question for the foreseeable future. Also, Addison Rae’s ad-libbed scream on the remix is legendary.
1) 365
The brat summer anthem. Could be played 8 times in a row and you wouldn’t know it, and I mean that in the best possible way. I’m in a warehouse, I’m sweaty, strobe lights illuminate a crowd that’s too tightly packed together, all sense of time has been lost, and this is what I’m listening to? Yeah, life is good in that moment.
And that’s that, for right now – I’m sure this ranking will change. These are songs meant to be lived and danced to, they require memories to be associated to them, and I very much look forward to making some. Now go bump brat and let yourself feel cool.
Do you agree with this ranking of brat by Charli XCX? Let us know in the comments below!
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