Charli xcx’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat achieves everything a remix album should and more, excelling as a follow up to the artist’s monumental dance record.
Emotions and experiences are in the front seat for xcx’s new songwriting, released Friday. With Brat, she grappled with entering her 30s, and with Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, she continues to grapple with the difficult questions she posed on the original — the prospect of becoming a mother, run-ins with facetious journalists, being famous but “not quite” and her fond memories of SOPHIE.
The familiar opening tones of “360 featuring robyn & yung lean” may convince some listeners that the new album is simply a simple retread of Brat. But xcx opens the song with entirely new lyrics, accompanied by Robyn and Yung Lean.
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Both Swedish icons contribute party-minded lyrics, which captures the hedonism of the original alongside frequent self-references and Yung Lean’s characteristic ghostly synths.
While “360 featuring robyn & yung lean” doesn’t deviate too much from the standard set by “360,” “Club classics featuring bb trickz” is completely unrecognizable. Gone are the stomping drum machines and claps of the original, now replaced by an entirely new, stuttering arrangement. It’s minimal techno let loose and it achieves the astonishing feat of nearly one-upping the first version, especially with the rapid fire, comical bars of Spanish rapper Bb trickz.
The companion album succeeds by not only deconstructing the album’s original hits, but by juxtaposing xcx’s club landscape to a seemingly opposing genre to create a new meaning to the track altogether.
“I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 & jon hopkins,” is reshaped into a mournful piano ballad accompanied by enveloping electronics. “Talk talk featuring troye sivan,” an album standout, harkens back to the house frenzy of Azealia Banks’ Broke with Expensive Taste. “Mean girls featuring julian casablancas,” strips away the straight-up bizarre xcx ode to Dasha Nekrasova with heartrending new lyrics by Casablancas and a Herbie Hancock piano sample at the forefront.
Caroline Polachek leaves her distinctly Polachek notes — sampled found sounds, vintage-feeling art pop production, impassioned, high-reaching vocals — on the “Everything is romantic” remix, toying with finding her purpose.
But not all of the new versions are winners. “I think about it all the time,” a personal favorite calmer song from Brat that’s reflective message rang out among the partygirl beats of “365” and “Club classics,” is kneecapped in the remix.
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The clicking, hollower production of the original suited xcx’s lyrics and her isolated vocals, while indie folk band Bon Iver makes the track feel tepid with woodland harmonies.
And while “Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande” takes on an entirely new meaning post-Brat with new lyrics about xcx’s grapple with fame, Ariana Grande just seems to be along for the ride. The song’s deep dive into how people will treat you after experiencing mass popularity is unmistakably xcx’s, and it seems Grande can’t keep up.
At its core, the remixes on Brat prove the album is about more than a party — it’s about loving your friends, being worried for the future and facing your insecurities with the help of others.
