It had been three months since the June release of Charli XCX’s hit album, “Brat,” kick-started the monstrous pop culture movement dubbed “Brat summer,” when she announced her remix album, “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat,” on Thursday, Sept. 12.
“Brat” had no featured artists originally on the album, so Charli XCX had released five notable remixes featuring other artists since its release: “Von dutch a.g. Cook remix featuring addison rae,” “360 featuring robyn and yung lean,” “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde,” “Guess featuring billie eilish,” and “Talk talk featuring troye sivan.”
The collaborations, particularly “Girl, so confusing” with Lorde and “Guess” with Billie Eilish, took the internet by storm, with “Guess featuring billie eilish” debuting at 12 on the Billboard Global Hot 100. Charli XCX even predicted this in “Girl, so confusing” by telling Lorde, “And when we put this [rumor of drama between the two] to bed / The internet will go crazy.”
Due to the numerous collaborations, many were predicting a collaborative remix album prior to its announcement. Charli XCX herself denied the rumors of a remix album, but also teased that there would be an additional release “in the bratosphere.”
In the days leading up to the remix album’s release, Charli XCX announced the tracklist, including collaborations using billboards in cities across the globe: Lafayette, Louisiana; London, England; Boca Raton, Florida; Stockholm, Sweden; Lake Hallie, Wisconsin, Tokyo, Japan; Auckland, New Zealand; Manchester, England; Pasadena, California and Perth, Australia.
Quite succinctly titled, “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat,” maintains the original energy of “Brat” while completely re-writing, structuring and producing the songs from the original album.
It is genius marketing on Charli XCX’s part, in that its significant differences from the original “Brat” make them almost entirely different albums. While some songs, such as “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde” maintain the original tone of the track, other songs like “Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek” have nearly nothing in common with the original track other than its title.
“I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 and jon hopkins” is particularly notable for this. The new track converts “I might say something stupid” to a piano ballad, where Charli XCX merely sings background vocals to Matty Healy, who tells his own story relating to “I might say something stupid.”
This is another valuable feature of the remix album一Charli XCX gives each collaborator their chance to shine and tell their own story through the “Brat” lens. This results in many songs completely twisting the song’s original hook, meaning people will reach for both albums, rather than one over the other.
For example, the original “Sympathy is a knife,” rumored to be about singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, finds Charli XCX jealous of someone she “couldn’t even be… if I tried.”
The remix, featuring Ariana Grande, instead describes the feeling when someone says they prefer the “old” them. It is a rejection of the common tendency in the music industry to long for “old versions” of someone and their artistry: “It’s a knife when… somebody says, ‘Charli, I think you’ve totally changed’ / It’s a knife when somebody says they like the old me and not the new me.”
While the original “Brat” finds Charli XCX exploring “whether I think I deserve commercial success,” “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” reflects on her life now that she has achieved commercial success. In fact, “Brat” debuted at Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 200, the highest she has ever charted.
“Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” is more meditative and reflective than the original “Brat,” making it feel like more of a response or sequel album to the favorable reception of “Brat” and her quick rise to fame among the general public.
Charli XCX describes on “Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande” how now that she is “finally on top… The next step is they wanna see you fall to the bottom.”
Perhaps the most stunning on the new album, “I think about it all the time featuring bon iver” also reflects on her new success in relation to her hopes of starting a family. The original discusses Charli XCX’s concerns and uncertainty surrounding starting a family, while the new reflects on her even greater uncertainty now that she is successful.
“Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” is a stunning sequel to the “Brat” album. Charli XCX manages to maintain the original “Brat summer” energy while creating a completely new complement to the “bratosphere,” making two albums for people to reach for to return to 2024’s “Brat summer.”
