This past summer, from car radios to nightclub speakers, nobody could escape the mighty chartreuse deluge that was brat summer. The monumental pop culture impact of Charli xcx’s sixth studio album brat (2024) shocked almost everyone, including Charli herself, who remarked in an interview with Apple Music that she expected brat to appeal only to her hardcore base. Instead, pop fans around the world relished in the album’s exquisite hyperpop production and themes of unapologetic messiness and raw self-reflection.
Throughout brat summer, the multi-hyphenate dropped several clues hinting at the potential for a remixed version of brat, leaving fans to speculate over what Charli had in the works and what the timeline for release would look like. The hype reached a boiling point on Sept. 12, when an X/Twitter post from Charli confirmed an Oct. 11 release for a new project in the brat-o-sphere. As billboards began sprouting up across the world teasing the upcoming album’s featured artists, pop listeners began bracing for the final episode in the brat saga. Now, the world has been blessed with Charli’s new testament—brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (2024).
On the remix, Charli demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the qualities that made brat so alluring while flexing her producer muscles in new and fascinating ways. Backed by a diverse ensemble of featured artists, brat and it’s completely different but also still brat honors the legacy of its predecessor album without overshadowing it. In fact, this album prevails as a phenomenal album in its own right—a feat most remix or companion albums seldom achieve.
A testament to Charli’s skills as a producer, almost every track on this album feels tonally unique from the original and yet clearly inspired by it. Oftentimes, she achieves this by toning down the intensity of the electronic mixing. “Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek” sports a surprisingly stripped-back production composed of soft electronic piano and wavering strings. These changes perfectly complement the angelic runs of Polachek—a longtime Charli collaborator—whose spoken verses position her as the confidant within the song. As Charli describes feeling overwhelmed by her newfound mainstream success, Polachek wisely responds that “It’s like you’re living the dream but you’re not living your life.”
Lowering the energy of brat’s characteristically EDM sound might instinctually feel wrong for a follow-up album, but Charli plays this card numerous times to great effect. “I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 & jon hopkins” stands out as a strikingly beautiful highlight on this album, despite being the mellowest track of them all. Gentle piano keys dominate the production of the first half, putting the focus on The 1975’s Matty Healy’s equally gritty yet tender vocals. The energy slowly builds while Healy reflects on his own feelings of inadequacy and self-hatred, parroting some lines from Charlie’s version (“Medicine makes me a problem / I’m famous but I’m not quite”). New instruments are introduced—drumbeats and guitar from The 1975 and synthesizers courtesy of co-producer Jon Hopkins. But even as Charli enters with new lyrics at the end, the track never breaks out into dance mania. Instead, the listener is left to stew in the emotional turmoil of this shockingly heavy track.
To my fellow party animals itching for new head bangers, worry not, because Charli also differentiates her remixes by going the other way—amping the intensity past the song’s previous iteration. After hearing teasers online and at the Sweat Tour, “365 featuring shygirl” delivers on fan expectations for a high-tempo number that would fit right in at an underground rave. Despite its brevity, Shygirl’s verse embodies the brat persona’s play-hard nature as synthesizers pound the eardrums: “Too hot, when I sweat, just lick me / Touch and squeeze when the bassline hits me.” Charli may be exploring a subtler tone for this remix album overall, but songs like this shatter any belief that it is “one-note.”
Arguably, Charli’s most impressive feat for these remixes is how each featured artist feels strategically placed on each track to showcase their own style, supported by mixing meant to complement them. “Club classics featuring bb trickz” opts for a beat-heavy backtrack and sampled lines from the original “Club classics” as well as “365” (almost as if Charli’s own songs are the “classics” she wishes to hear in the club). The heavily sampled production allows the guest verse to shine as bb trickz infuses new, head-bopping energy. Delivered in Spanish, her lines scratch an itch in the brain regardless of your comprehension of the language. “Fashion killa, aunque el outfit sea básico,” and “Baddie en el club, brat en el club,” resonate as particularly memorable.
Examples of artists well-matched to their tracks are numerous. On “Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande,” the fellow pop star contributes her own experiences of sabotage and unfair criticism within the industry alongside Charli’s: “It’s a knife when they dissect your body on the front page.” And on “B2b featuring tinashe,” the accompanying singer brings her success in the R&B genre to the forefront while responding to Charli’s admission that they both “really blew the fuck up.” No need to feel embarrassed that you blushed as Tinashe gracefully crooned “The way my ass look in these jeans / I’m ’bout to throw it back”—being envious of Tinashe and Charli is perhaps the point.
The urge to compare this album with brat is unsurprising—plenty have already gone down the tracklist declaring whether this album’s remixed tracks are better than their originals. It’s a natural instinct, but one that perhaps would be best to ignore, because this album truly feels like a separate, distinct work. Sure, Charli has painted with the same colors, but the brushstrokes are different, and so the final painting is something utterly new. To expect Charli to follow up the breakout success of brat with a remix album featuring only new guest verses and minor changes would mean creatively trapping her into a lime green box, and that is something Charli is clearly not here for.
brat and it’s completely different but also still brat is not brat 2.0. Many of the tracks will never grace the sound systems of nightclubs or underground boiler room sets. Yet, these remixes capture the brat spirit that has made this past summer so memorable. That spirit being: raw honesty, emotional vulnerability, and just not giving two fucks. So frankly, enjoy this remix album for what it is, not what you want it to be, and just keep “bumpin‘ that.”
