From the most RSVP’d set in The Boileroom in February to being nominated for 7 Grammy awards, the second highest after Beyoncé with Cowboy Carter, Charli XCX has had one heck of a year.
Her sixth studio album, Brat, is one of this year’s most talked about and celebrated albums. Brat combines a synth-driven electropop melody with some of the most vulnerable and melancholy writing I’ve heard this year.
Departing from 2022’s Crash (her most radio-friendly album, which scored her first Billboard 200 entry at no. 7) and its formulaic pop 101 lyrics, Brat is Charli’s return to her Y2K club music origins.
And what a return it is.
From Crash to Brat—and Beyond
Ironically, Brat did what Crash failed to do and became her most successful and critically acclaimed album. It became a summer 2024 phenomenon, with “brat summer” reminiscent of when Megan thee Stallion claimed 2019 with “hot girl summer.”
Charli’s 2022 album Crash served as the closing chapter of her 5-record deal with Asylum Records, one that she had signed back in 2010. In contrast, Brat’s ingenious rollout was a marketing masterclass, the kind befitting for a debut under a powerhouse label like Atlantic Records.
Metacritic ranked Brat as the highest-rated album of 2024 and the 16th-highest-rated album of all time with a cumulative score of 95—no easy feat.
Brat as a concept means so many things. It’s a fearless, confident strut, its tangled emotions of collaborating with respected peers, it’s the anxiety of the spotlight, and a cheeky acknowledgement that you’re everyones favorite reference.
Brat was released June 7th. Three days later, a deluxe version titled ‘Brat and It’s the Same but There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not’, which indeed did have three more songs. Those songs were the flirty Guess, rebelliously punk Spring Breakers, and melancholy Hello goodbye.
To build hype for Brat‘s release, Chali painted and repainted a wall in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the “brat wall,” with the album’s signature green color and various messages that matched the album’s promotional cycle.
Brat‘s Vulnerable Heart
Throughout the album, interspaced between bodacious songs like 360 and Mean Girls are vulnerable gems that show Charli’s pen game.
Brat isn’t just about the highs—it’s also a raw reflection of the anxieties and lows that shadow Charli’s mind.
During the buildup to the release of Brat, the cover art of Charli XCX’s discography was updated across streaming platforms to match its appearance. The album’s cover art was simple yet outstanding: A lime green background and the name spelt in lowercase and took five months to create.
The cover generated some criticism as being lazy. But Charli defended it, calling out society’s entitlement to women’s bodies and explaining she chose the garish green to ask why society deemed certain things bad or good.
SWEAT Tour
Ever the quintessential party girl, Charli kicked off a pre-release tour for Brat, performing eight shows across the globe—three in the U.S. and others in Barcelona, Poland, the UK, Mexico, and Brazil.
As brat summer drew to a close, the Charli announced the start of the SWEAT tour, her fall co-headlining tour with frequent collaborator and pop sensation Troye Sivan.
The tour started on September 14 in Detroit and quickly became one of the most talked about tours of the season, extending her reign as this year’s hottest artist.
Guest appearances on the tour include Lorde, Kesha, Shygirl, Addison Rae, Saweeti, Tate Mcray and Vinnie Hacker. The Sweat Tour ended on October 23rd—but the party’s not over yet. More London shows are scheduled for late November, with additional dates planned in Australia for February next year.
On Oct 11. She released a remix album, Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, to even more acclaim. The album had features on every song, and it completely flipped the album on its head.
It spawned her first UK number-one as a solo artist with Guess remix featuring Billie Eilish and had iconic songs like Girl, So Confusing featuring Lorde, and Sympathy Is a Knife featuring Ariana Grande. Most of the songs showcased new lyrics from Charli, while a few stood out as entirely original compositions.
Charli XCX is Pop’s Resilient Underdog
Is it any surprise that she scored seven Grammy nominations in the categories Album of the Year, pop solo and pop duo/group performance, pop dance recording, dance/electronic album and music video?
To top it all off, Charli has also been working on the soundtracks for the upcoming film Mother Mary and the upcoming TV series Overcompensating.
Charli has been one of pop music’s most eclectic artists, releasing her first songs in 2008, getting commercial fame with 2012’s I Love It, but becoming global from her 2014 feature on Iggy Azalea’s Fancy.
Considering she has more than paid her dues—Charli’s success now feels like a well-deserved payoff.
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