This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Jordyn Centerwall. Find her on Instagram at @jordyncenterwall. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
Just when I thought Charli XCX couldn’t have a more iconic year she went and dropped a full remix album. Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat came into the world earlier than intended when it leaked just hours before it was set to release. Despite the leak, Charli still held a live Twitch stream listening party at Storm King Art Center in New York. The album features 17 remixes currently. The only song not included is “Hello goodbye,” but she could very well drop that any day like she delayed the Kesha “Spring breakers” remix. I decided to follow suit of the music reactors, and rank the album using TierMaker and a scale of my own creation. Many creators participated in a brat deluxe ranking, and are starting to for the new album as well. Some of the remixes are more heart-wrenching than the originals, while others are even bigger club classics. Let’s get into it.
My Scale
Charli has been bread-crumbing these remixes since she dropped the “Von Dutch” remix with Addison Rae and ag cook in March before the original release of Brat in June. Next came the “Von Dutch” release with Skream and Benga, which didn’t make the remix album. Shortly after came “360” with robyn and yung lean, “Girl so confusing featuring lorde,” and the Billie Eilish “Guess” remix. The last single to drop was her “Talk talk” collab with Troye Sivan at the start of their Sweat Tour. Maybe it was short-sighted, but I fully expected that would be the last of new music drops from Charli that we would get for a while. As everyone on the internet was declaring the end of Brat summer though, everyone’s favorite party girl had one more trick up her sleeve.
Brat and it’s completely different but still brat tackles many of the same themes as the original, but adds new layers of dimension to the tracks by adding another artist’s take to them. In ranking the album I rated each song based on three factors: clerb, collab, and devastating. Clerb is how hype I would be if the song came on in a club. The collab scale is how iconic the collaboration was and how well it blended Charli’s music with the new interpretation of the featured artist. Finally, devastating captured how touching some of the tracks were. I also did an overall ranking of the songs using TierMaker. This is just my scale and my opinion of each track. I had such a fun time listening to the album and it was honestly difficult to make the top two tiers in particular. Without further ado, here are the results.
My Ranking
- “360 featuring robyn and yung lean” – Clerb: 5/10, Collab: 7/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Club classics featuring bb trickz” – Clerb: 7/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande” – Clerb: 3/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 9/10
- “I might say something stupid featuring the 1975” – Clerb: 2/10, Collab: 5/10, Devastating: 6/10
- “Talk talk featuring troye sivan” – Clerb: 7/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Von dutch featuring a.g. cook and addison rae” – Clerb: 6/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek” – Clerb: 2/10, Collab: 9/10, Devastating 7/10
- “Rewind featuring bladee” – Clerb: 2/10, Collab: 4/10, Devastating: 3/10
- “So I featuring a.g. cook” – Clerb: 6/10, Collab: 7/10, Devastating: 1/10
- “Girl so confusing featuring lorde” – Clerb: 4/10, Collab: 10/10, Devastating: 7/10
- “Apple featuring japanese house” – Clerb: 5/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 7/10
- “B2b featuring tinashe” – Clerb: 7/10, Collab: 9/10, Devastating: 1/10
- “Mean girls featuring julian casablancas” – Clerb: 2/10, Collab 3/10, Devastating: 4/10
- “I think about it all the time featuring bon iver” – Clerb: 3/10, Collab: 6/10, Devastating: 10/10
- ‘365 featuring shygirl” – Clerb: 10/10, Collab: 7/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” – Clerb: 9/10, Collab: 10/10, Devastating: 0/10
- “Spring breakers featuring kesha” – Clerb: 7/10, Collab: 8/10, Devastating: 0/10
After going through and ranking each song, I wish I would have done a TierMaker so that I could compare my brat deluxe ranking to the new album. Some creators are even pinning the originals versus the remixed tracks in their rankings. I don’t think I could honestly choose in some cases, but here are some of my top songs from each category.
Top Collab
My top two collaboration on the remix album are “Guess featuring Billie” and “Girl so confusing featuring lorde.” Not only are these two featured artists iconic in their own right, but the transformation their participation had in the remix had was lowkey life-changing. There’s a reason why people are making shirts with “Lets work it out on the remix” on it. I’ve also had Billie’s verse stuck in my head since it released and the music video has been on repeat too.
I’m also going to shout out “I might say something stupid with the 1975” because Charli saw an opportunity and she took it. Sure some might say that her connection to the band (with being engaged to George Daniel) was a major factor that caused her to feature them. But even without the connection, this song objectively screams Matty Healey. I’ve listened to the 1975 for years and while I don’t agree with their lead singers’ choices msot of the time, I was ecstatic when I saw she was featuring them. And then I heard the song. My only gripe with it (and the reason it doesn’t rank higher on the collab scale) is that there isn’t enough of Charli’s sound in it. I finished listening to the song and felt like I had just heard new music from the 1975. A+ for potential, but the collaboration element of it didn’t shine through the way it did with the other tracks.
Top Devastating
I already knew I would love the remix of “I think about it all the time” before I even looked at who Charli featured. The original song was already tragically beautiful, and Bon Iver made it even more so. The “I found love” hit me right in the gut the first time I heard it. The emotions the track touches on are one’s I’ve felt as I look at my future and worry that I won’t be able to do it all. The song in its remix continues to be one of stress, but also of release in admitting the feature.
I learned that Charli had featured Ariana Grande from a meme about Troye Sivan introducing the two. I also did my first listen through right after watching Grande do a lie detector test as promo for Wicked where she was asked questions about having had work done. The “Sympathy is a knife” remix is about Charli and Ariana calling out negativity, clapping back at the haters, and basking in the success that they’ve fought for.
Top Clerb
Finally, “365 featuring shygirl” was without a doubt the top clerb energy track on the remix album. Which is fitting because if I’d done a ranking for the original Brat album or a brat deluxe ranking, it would have swept each time. B2b was already a favorite of mine as well, but featuring Tinashe took it to another level. The remix makes me want to dance after a hard week with my girlfriends. It’s truly the feeling of letting loose in song form.
With “hello goodbye” still unreleased many fans have started to vie for their dream collabs. The front runner appears to be a Tove lo feature according to a Genius community answer and the Reddit threads I’ve been wading through since the album leaked. Also in the mix are Carly Rae Jepsen, Slayyter, and some fans have even speculated that Taylor Swift could be a contender.
How does the remix album stack up with your brat deluxe ranking? Do you have a favorite remix? Let us know in the comments.
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