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So... I guess I'm somewhat late to the party, But I really wanted to talk about this record. It's just in such a unique place in the music discourse when it comes to a lot of things. The era itself isn't even over, after the album itself, Charli released a deluxe with 3 more incredible tracks, a "Girl, So Confusing" remix with Lorde, all announced in the famous Brat wall. All of which while touring her own boiler room sets. We all are still in the middle of it, with Charli herself confirming work on a few more remix tracks. Given how huge the "Girl, So Confusing" remix was in generating discourse, I'm sure the next one(s) will also generate a big ruckus. Here we'll only uncover the main 15 tracks, but make sure to also listen to "Guess" and "the Girl, So Confusing remix with Lorde", both are incredible songs.
This whole story started with the album cover. It was revealed before any of the singles and we were all like "woah, this stinks". Now I'm pretty sure we all understand the line of thought behind it, even if Charli's reasoning still doesn't quite make sense to me: "In albums made by women, you're expected to see the woman on the cover" or something like that. Anyway, the simple cover was probably one of the main reasons for the success of the album.
A few weeks later, we were introduced to Von Dutch; That's when we realized Charli was NOT playing around. The Bouncing synths and 808's go wild, it's probably some of my favourite production ever on a track and it was just a teaser for what was to come on the full album. Then we got Club Classics alongside b2b, which were both dance club bangers. We got to understand a bit more of the persona Charli kinda cultivates on her songs, this crazy party girl, but with also a lot of baggage and conflicts. This party girl persona serves as an escapism tool from her life, which somewhat dives her even deeper in that hole. The theme is more explored further in the album, on tracks like "I might say something stupid" and "think about it all the time" (and we're gonna talk a lot about this one specifically); But overall it's all a bit of a second thought. The party girl lives on and never goes home, don't sleep, don't eat just do it on repeat.
The final single was 360, in this track Charli somewhat revisits the themes on Von Dutch, exploring her own importance for the Hyperpop and PC Music scene. Charli is very aware of her importance and her influences, looking back at her career you understand there was at some point a radical shift away from commercial pop, present in True Romance and SUCKER, into a more fearless, exploring and creatively rich Charli from Vroom Vroom EP onward. That came mainly from her collaboration with people like A.G. Cook and SOPHIE, both of whom are mentioned in Club Classics, which is a song that acknowledges those influences and celebrates those artists and club culture as a whole.
A big part of the sound of this album stems from Charli and Co.'s incredible use of the saw wave. It's pretty much a constant in his and Charli's approach to the synths on this album and have some of the most sonically rich pallettes of any album I've heard. There are specific songs that come to mind that give me an eargasm due to the synth walls, Talk Talk, Von Dutch, Mean Girls and 365 are some examples.
Another big point of the production of this album is the creative usage of Charli's vocals. They're often off key, like that "infamous" bridge in "think about it all the time" that caused some discourse recently. That along with an extensive usage of autotune, a staple element from Hyperpop and PC Music, make for a wildly interesting sounding project overall.
And for me the element that compliments the whole production is the Percussion. Mainly the lack of any complex patterns, which focuses your ear on the sound. This is obviously very natural in EDM due to sound hierarchy, you want the song to be about "feeling", and keeping the kick on 4 and a simple snare and hat patterns directs the focus of the listener. On the highest points of the songs you notice every percussive element vanishing and the only thing remaining being the kick on 4, like in Talk Talk, Von Dutch and 365. The sounds themselves for the snare and mainly the hi-hat vary a lot, which nowadays is quite common but still interesting to point out, sometimes the snare may be a clap, a rimshot, and the hat may be a reverse hi-hat, maracas, or something like that.
An example that I think it's so cool to point out and shows that variety of sonic elements is "Everything Is Romantic". The song starts with a woodwind and strings piece and the whole track lives up to that "epicness", with buildups, calm moments, and a really cool drop. The pacing on the whole album, while tending to be constantly fast, has plenty of variation, not quite on the BPM (though it varies on that on the calm songs) but within the tracks.
Speaking of the calm songs, throughout the tracklist, there are plenty of mentions of SOPHIE. Trans PC Music artist that was a collaborator of Charli for a long time. Track 9 "So I" is a homage to her history and body of work. Referencing "It's Okay To Cry":
And I know you always said, "It's okay to cry"
So I know I can cry, I can cry, so I cry
Brat is often very direct in its lyricism, leaving no room for double guessing. I think that's mostly to the albums benefit. Charli said the album is meant to sound like something you would say in a daily conversation, no metaphors or anything like that. Not sure that applies to Apple though, the whole song is a metaphor; But it's a GREAT song. The whole track feels very much like Caroline Polachek, and even Charli said that it was the goal she had with that song.
Talking about lyricism, it's impossible to ignore "I think about it all the time". The track couldn't be more direct in its messaging, and is kind of where we see that dissipation of the party girl the most. The track talks about the future, mainly about the possibility of motherhood. Personally this track makes me uncomfortable with how direct Charli approaches the subject, nontheless it's not a mood killer. She also talks about how she would be willing to give up her lifestyle and her carreer, which she says "feels so small in the grand scheme of it all".
To finish things out we get the biggest whiplash, with 365. While the previous song talks about abandoning the party girl lifestyle, 365 is an ode to said lifestyle, to doing coke in the bathroom. The song is a non stop party, that takes sonic elements from 360 and amplifies them in a sort of reprise. Being the most danceable song on here, with a drop that lives up to the 14 songs that come before it, and the constant "ah aaah ooh oh" and "bumpin' that" that makes the song singable as well.
Brat is an extraordinary album, Charli's magnum opus as an artist and an ongoing cultural phenomenon. It sounds like nothing else and feels like a continuous party. And any album that is able to pull this concept off has my full respect. The synths sound great, the beats bang, the vocals captivate, and you can even explore the lyricism deeper if you so wish to, where you'll find a Party Girl escaping from her own life, in exchange for a lifestyle that she doesn't feel totally comfortable in.
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