Charli xcx: Brat and it's completely different but also still Brat review – her bright green imperial phase is unstoppable | Charli xcx

OOn “Brat,” Charli During Rewind's sickly sweet, deconstructed British garage, she worried about her lack of presence on the Billboard charts and wasn't sure “if I think I deserve commercial success.” During the jagged synthpop of “Sympathy Is a Knife,” she bristled under the pitying gaze of a fellow megastar. On the electro dirge “I Might Say Something Stupid,” she described herself as “famous, but not quite.”

The agony and ecstasy of the sub-mainstream pop star proved to be an incredibly rich seam. Brat has muddled Charli's iconic sound – a harsh and overly artificial take on dance-pop – and paired it with lyrics that oscillate between euphoric swagger and breathtakingly open vulnerability. In fact, it was so rich that it defeated the concept. “Brat,” which reached No. 3 on the U.S. charts upon its release in June, became a bona fide commercial hit and a cultural juggernaut thanks in part to a brilliantly meme-friendly marketing campaign (the power of which is best exemplified by “Kamala”). . Harris campaign co-opting the artwork). It elevated the 32-year-old to the celebrity firmament and, more importantly, shifted the Overton window of pop into a more futuristic, experimental space.

As Charli rides this wave of publicity and adoration, he's somehow found time to capitalize on it and release a remix album named for the same wry, understated sensibility that characterized Brat's lyrics. Brat And It's Completely Different But Too Still Brat isn't just a slightly jazzed up version of the original record; According to the title, many tracks have been completely reworked. It's even more exciting than Brat 1.0 – not because it represents an objective improvement (though it is often more subtle and sophisticated, and occasionally more enjoyably brutal) – but because it provides undeniable proof that Charli and her collaborators, most notably producer AG Cook, are her are in their imperial phase: they have ideas coming out of their ears, and they are all good.

The creative highlights of this career peak are quickly surpassing each other. A new version of Club Classics cannibalizes two other tracks – 365 and B2B – while distorting Charli's vocals and clanging like a faulty computer program, a throwback to the early releases from Cook's cult label PC Music. Yung Lean and Robyn bring quirky swagger to 360. Caroline Polachek transforms “Everything Is Romantic” via marbles into exquisitely atmospheric, streetlight-lit electronica chanting about the drizzly everyday life of London. And Lorde brings an exciting meta-candidness based on body image to “Girl, So Confusing” (a song that originally cast her as a potential enemy).

Big names as guests – Bon Iver, who embellishes “I Think About It All The Time” with glitch soul; Julian Casablancas brings retro indie sleaze to Mean Girls – experimenting with Charli's trademark sound in a sometimes jarring but always interesting way. The real appeal, however, remains the interplay between unusual, extravagant synthetic electropop and Charli's droll soul.

She hasn't stopped: In an unexpectedly bold move, Charli is now talking about her meteoric rise. B2B forgoes the snap-squelch bass line to make room for a stream-of-consciousness monologue about her new life (she's “fucking tired,” which could mean, “Oh shit, I somehow managed it”) and Sympathy's “Is a Knife” laments the downsides of overwhelming success: friends saying you’ve changed, people eagerly awaiting your demise. As a musician (and as a human being), Charli doesn't exactly exude warmth, but her arrogance is always tempered by a very understandable self-loathing – a nuance that spectacularly ignores Ariana Grande's contribution to Sympathy Is a Knife: “It's a knife, If you're so pretty, they think it must be fake.” On “Rewind,” now reissued as a nostalgia trip for the days before “Brat,” Charli laments the ugly, hollow impulses that fame creates : “Wanna see my face full up in the press / When I don’t done me a little depressed.”

In some ways, this is a victory lap: Charli is a self-proclaimed party girl, and judging by the guest list (other collaborators include Billie Eilish, Troye Sivan, and The 1975), this extremely fun and cool collection is the hottest ticket of the year. In another case, however, it's a glimpse into the celebrity's dark heart. As we all know, achieving all your dreams isn't all it's cracked up to be – but for the sake of pop music's progress, it's a good thing that Charli XCX had the chance to find out for herself.