The modern album rollout can feel like a clinical exercise in algorithmic optimization: artists waterfall four or five singles until the album drops, which is then immediately followed by a deluxe edition days (or even hours) later, and then continued remixes in the weeks and months that follow. It's taken some of the fun out of bonus tracks, turning them into a cynical way to game the charts rather than a fun deep dive for hardcore fans.
Leave it to Charli XCX and her triumphant BRAT campaign to turn that all on its head. It's hard to remember another remix album that ever got as much hype as Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, which was rolled out with billboards and listening parties, making this a true Event Album rather than just a nudge to remind streaming services that BRAT exists.
Previously released remixes with Lorde and Billie Eilish were game-changing remixes that gave mega-famous artists a chance to have frank, raw and cheeky conversations that were miles away from the usual closely guarded PR strategies of pop stars.
Exclaim! staffers spent all morning listening to the album and shared our thoughts in a group chat, where we discussed our initial disappointment that the rest of the album isn't quite as stunning as those two remixes — but also acknowledged that what we got is possibly more interesting, and definitely more brat.
BRAT Summer Never Died
Alex: Having a remix album feel like an actual Event is basically unheard of. It kinda disproves the various "BRAT Summer is dead" declarations people made. Are you all still on the Charli hype train?
Kaelen: People are way too caught up in whether BRAT Summer is over or BRAT Fall is beginning. I still like the album so I've continued to listen to it. I'm still on the Charli Express.
Megan: BRAT is an excellent album, regardless of the season.
Karlie: BRAT transcends the calendar year.
Alex: I was annoyed by Charli's birthday party. Did we learn nothing from Taylor's "popular crowd of bullies" phase? But otherwise, I have been fully and uninterruptedly BRAT-pilled.
Kaelen: You're just annoyed you never got the invite.
Megan: I'm still on the hype train, and it is really cool how much of a whole thing the lead-up to the remix album has felt like. And maybe that's why it inevitably doesn't live up to the high expectations!
Kaelen: I kinda think the mixed reactions I'm seeing are due to the fact that people were expecting 11 more "Girl, so confusing featuring lorde" remixes. Basically original tracks with fancy guest verses. This is a REMIX remix album.
Alex: I agree with Kaelen. The Lorde and Billie remixes were transcendent and instantly turned into the definitive versions of those songs. So, perhaps unrealistically, I wanted more of that, and this doesn't offer that. But taken as an expansion of the BRAT universe, this remix album is a way better party than her actual birthday party!
Karlie: An artist who was arguably "gay famous" that has now reached this level of mainstream success but is still honing in on what she's good at is always going to have a really mixed reaction. Charli has been around forever, but never before has she been at the forefront of culture like this
Kaelen: Okay broad general reactions aside, are people vibing with the remixes? How do we feel after all the lead-up hype? There are some obviously high highs and some pretty mid lows, and at least one stinkbomb.
Megan: Yeah, exactly. Very much a rollercoaster of a listen, unlike BRAT, which is pretty much high highs all the way through.
Sydney: Yeah, more of a whirlwind because some songs feel like completely different tracks.
Kaelen: It really benefits from multiple listens, once you get past the whiplash of these songs being so dismantled they stand up more on their own. This woulda been a boring-ass album if it was just shiny guest verse after shiny guest verse. I like that there are these definitive tent-pole remixes surrounded by more freaky stuff.
Alex: In reference to the title — it's more "completely different" than "still brat."
Karlie: BRAT Ship of Theseus.
Alex: Brat ship of theseus so is it still brat?
Megan: Schrodinger's BRAT.
Alex: Pavlov's BRAT, because I start salivating whenever Charli releases new music.
Kaelen: Good job everyone.
Being Mean Girls to the 1975
Alex: Okay, let's be mean girls. Who shits the bed?
Kaelen: Bed-shitter of the year goes to the 1975.
Alex: The 1975 remix is brutal. Wretched!! Terrible. Simpering and awful. Simply garbage.
Sydney: My hatred of the 1975 has been validated by this album.
Megan: That was possibly the most boring four minutes and 10 seconds of my life.
Karlie: I was not moved at all. "I might say something stupid," likely thing for Matty Healy to say
Kaelen: Charli's original was so tender and vulnerable, but it was also so clean. The 1975 version just swamps it so hard.
Sydney: Better or worse than Jon Hopkins's work on the new Coldplay album? lol
Alex: It's funny because I actually think Jon Hopkins's piano is lovely. It's Matty Healy who sinks it.
Sydney: He's known as an edgelord and has the tamest, milquetoast remix, which I think speaks to how shallow his image is.
Megan: It would have been a great opportunity to say something real about all the stupid shit he's said! I feel like it was squandered. The same with Ariana Grande on that grating-ass version of "Sympathy is a knife." She has been through some real shit, and she sings, "It's a knife when you're so pretty they think you must be fake"? Empathy is a fork in my eyeball.
Kaelen: I think the "Sympathy" remix sounds cool (though it woulda been sick to hear Ariana on the original instrumental). But it flips Charli's complex original thesis into basically "it feels bad when people are mean." Like, yeah! we know that already!
Alex: "When people stab you with a knife, it's a knife."
Kaelen: I will say I like the new "Sympathy" chorus though. Ariana just feels underused.
Karlie: "Sympathy" is when I want to promote my new movie Wicked.
Megan: The "it's a knife when" repetitions are kind of cool. There was potential here! I hate the production on Ariana's vocals, too. It doesn't serve her well.
Kaelen: She sounds muffled.
Megan: "All this expectation is a knife" is the realest thing they said.
Karlie: I remember when there were rumours that Taylor Swift was going to feature on "Sympathy." That was a scary day on Twitter. Deeply unbelievable, but the idea was enough to send a chill down my spine.
Kaelen: Troye Sivan's "Talk talk" remix feels as inessential as it did when it first came out, ditto for the "Von dutch" remix (and Addison Rae still sounds out of place on her verses, though I love her scream).
Sydney: Does Addison Rae do anything but that scream on the "Von dutch" remix? It feels like she's just on it to have her name on it.
Kaelen: She sings several verses, but it doesn't really work. She's not built for that kinda swagger and cadence. ("Diet Pepsi" still hits.)
Sydney: Her rebrand will be studied for decades to come.
Karlie: She's very much just there along for the ride, but I have to say I'm kinda here for it.
Sydney: I mean, that feels like what she's doing in general...
Megan: Addison Rae was on that remix purely because she is an example of living that life "Von dutch," I think. "Diet Pepsi" fucking bangs, though.
Alex: "Diet Pepsi" hits like actual Diet Pepsi. Surprisingly good for what it is, but it's still just aspartame.
Megan: Sometimes aspartame can make life worth living, Alex. You above everyone else should know that.
Caroline Polachek Is Our Instant Crush
Kaelen: Honestly, "Everything is romantic" with Caroline Polachek was the first song that really hit me, feels like such a great companion to the original that twists the original concept into something much more complicated and sad. An obvious winner. It feels essential after a bunch of fluff.
Alex: "Romantic" gets that same transcendent, euphoric feeling of Desire, I Want to Turn Into You. And singing about a shitty fall day in London is such a cool flip on the concept of the original song. My favourite run of lyrics on the remix album (aside from the Lorde remix): "Silver scratch card in the canal / Romantic like six-pound wine / Dark in the park, Celtic graves / Girl throws up from the back of a Lime / Headphones on, I hit play / All things change in the blink of an eye." Gorgeous!
Megan: I loved how Caroline sang about free bleeding <3
Kaelen: The grey, rainy London day to Charli's golden-hour Italian evening. It works so well.
Alex: And a very cool twist on how Desire was Caroline's beautiful Italian album.
Megan: "Girl, so confusing" aside, the "Everything is romantic" remix is very much the winner. Caroline's vocals add so much, and she's just the perfect person for this concept.
Kaelen: Another obvious success (to me) is the A. G. Cook remix of "So I." It taps into SOPHIE's sonic spirit much more than the original, and I love that Charli uses the opportunity to shed the guilt of the original and feel some joy in remembering her friend. A real "stages of grief" moment.
Megan: It's genuinely quite moving. I loved the original, and I feel like this expands upon it in a really beautiful way.
Sydney: I'm definitely more into this version of "So I," especially because it makes her grief seem more real. Not just because of the real examples of her and SOPHIE's friendship, but because of how much more raw it is.
Megan: I would argue that the original is very raw too. I loved how Charli opened up about how SOPHIE made her feel insecure. This is a more optimistic slant, remembering very specific happy memories.
Karlie: The production on the remix definitely made me feel a lot closer to both Charli and SOPHIE in a way that the original didn't, and I still thought the original was beautiful.
Megan: I also think it's worth adding that the most-improved from original to remix arc probably goes to "Mean girls"? I have no idea what Julian Casablancas was saying, but it probably wasn't as cringey as the original lyrics. Plus, that piano riff gets more shine!
Kaelen: I was amazed that it wasn't more of a disaster.
Sydney: Mr. Casablancas always goes off on a pop/electronic track.
Kaelen: He turned it into a Voidz song, and it worked somehow.
Alex: Julian kinda gets his "Instant Crush" vibe.
Sydney: I was hoping for "Instant Crush 2" ngl!
Arguing About Bon Iver
Alex: I feel like this might be an objectively wrong opinion, but I sorta like Bon Iver here, even though I wish Charli bothered to examine the idea of "maybe FOMO isn't the best reason to have children." Instead she just kinda talks more about the same thing she did on the original song, and it feels like kind of a surface reading of a complex idea.
Kaelen: I hate the Bon Iver remix. Despise his clowny voice and his cloying songwriting, and I miss the alien iciness of Charli's original. But I respect all other takes (kinda).
Megan: I have mixed feelings about the Bon Iver feature. I think he adds great atmosphere here as per, but I don't think either of them say anything interesting. Charli has some great vocal moments here, but it all kind of takes away from the power of the original.
Kaelen: He just drags it down. It was so concise and powerful before he bearded all over it.
Megan: Literally threw down swathes of cozy cabins and flannels. And for what?!
Alex: Biggest missed opportunity here: "Apple." It's fine! Not bad. It kinda sounds like a neat cover. But I was baffled by the choice of combining the album's big viral hit with the Japanese House, of all people. Having heard it, I remain baffled.
Kaelen: It exists, the Japanese House is there, what else is there to say? HOWEVER, we've gotta chat about Tinashe on "B2b." I love this one. "B2b" always felt a bit minor to me in the grand scheme of BRAT, so I welcome Tinashe's energy here.
Megan: I think "B2b" with Tinashe is another that improves upon the original! I was throwing ass in the kitchen to it while heating my coffee back up.
Kaelen: It's fun hearing these two people who had such big years celebrate together. I mean, Tinashe's maybe wasn't all THAT big compared to Charli's, but still! Comparison is a knife, etc.
Being Inconsistent and Messy IS Brat
Alex: Onto the final word. After a LOT of hype, does the remix album live up? If you had to give it a grade out of 10, what would it be?
Kaelen: I'd say it's a solid 7/10, which is all I really needed from it. It lives up to the messy, follow-your-own-vision ethos of BRAT. It feels like exactly the remix album that Charli wanted to make — Japanese House and 1975 and all. Lorde's remix is unsurprisingly the best thing about it. Everything else could have been complete ass, and it still would've been worth it for that song alone.
Megan: Maybe I'll feel differently with more listens, but I think it's definitely a mixed bag. Some of the features I had high hopes for — Ariana Grande, Bon Iver, the 1975 — fell extremely flat, while others did indeed meet the high bar (Caroline Polachek, namely) and dark horses emerged as being surprisingly sick. Much like the whole ethos of BRAT, it takes big swings, willing to fall flat and then get up and keep dancing like it was all part of the bit. I would also give it a 7! The highs are very high, which is SO brat.
Alex: It's less transcendent than I hoped after the Billie and Lorde remixes. It doesn't quite elevate the form of the remix to a whole new level like those two songs. But I can appreciate it for how it's weird and a TRUE remix album. She broke the album into pieces and reassembled it into something new. It's kinda what she did with her Boiler Room set — just fragments of the album reconfigured for a new purpose. And so I quite love it, despite the imperfections. That's enough for an 8/10 from me.
Sydney: I almost don't view this as a cohesive album because of how much of a mixed bag it is sonically. It's hard to rate it because of that, but I'd also say 7. It doesn't take away from the mystique of BRAT, and it's a cool case study of what's arguably been the best press run an album has had all decade.
Karlie: I agree, I feel very confident with a 7. The highs were just so high that I could really listen to them forever, making the real stinkers just completely fade away like they never even existed in the first place.
Kaelen: She's said so herself, but I think it's gonna be a while before we hear music from Charli again. She should take some time to bask, she managed to pull something off that really doesn't happen often anymore.
Alex: I appreciate when people disappear for a bit. Give me some time to miss them. Overexposure is a knife.
Megan: IT'S A KNIFE WHEN, IT'S A KNIFE WHEN!