brat - Charli XCX

[Magneto 13,183]

I totally agree with @numb the flame and I'm surprised it hasn't been said more. I actually expected it to go way harder because of most of the singles, the boiler room set and her calling it a club record. I most definitely didn't expect any ballads, so I was a little disappointed on first listen. I still love it though and easily my favorite album of the year! And like mentioned before; so cool seeing Charli finally getting her flowers!

[holy scheisse 20,811]

 Apple has me so gagged. The lyrics are so clever and intriguing 
 

Something I like about this album is how the majority of songs actually aren’t about love and relationships. I feel like I’m burnt out on pop music being so focused on that 

[StarstruckIllusion 43,127]

Oh Godli XCX… you are just flawfree

[nickkoko 921]

It's not bad but it's not blowing me away. Maybe my mind will change after a few listens. Worst album cover of the year though.

[StrawberryBlond 13,481]

I am really baffled as to what critics are seeing. They've been overrating Charli's music for quite a while now. I've listened to all her albums in full and apart from a few winners, they are very odd bodies of work that seem that they're trying too hard to be weird and quirky. Of all her albums, I didn't expect this one to break the 90's score. I Might Say Something Stupid and So I were decent but the only ones I felt were truly good were Mean Girls and 365 and even they're pretty standard fare. Tracks are quite short with very little lyrics, repetitive lines, barely any depth and are for the most part extremely superficial. I really can't get what learned critics are loving here when clearly much better albums have been released this year. Near enough perfect scores? 

[Karl 2,907]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I am really baffled as to what critics are seeing. They've been overrating Charli's music for quite a while now. I've listened to all her albums in full and apart from a few winners, they are very odd bodies of work that seem that they're trying too hard to be weird and quirky. Of all her albums, I didn't expect this one to break the 90's score. I Might Say Something Stupid and So I were decent but the only ones I felt were truly good were Mean Girls and 365 and even they're pretty standard fare. Tracks are quite short with very little lyrics, repetitive lines, barely any depth and are for the most part extremely superficial. I really can't get what learned critics are loving here when clearly much better albums have been released this year. Near enough perfect scores? 

Sonically she is daring and pushes pop sounds forward, lyrically she is being vulnerable on this album and using a personal lyrical style like she's texting her mates, some of them don't even rhyme. For a popstar it's very out the box and left field, critics (and me) love that ****, they love someone who does it a little different and messy, rather than putting together a solid but predictable album like a lot of the ones this year so far. Plus it's full of bangers, critics tend to favour new sounds and ways of making songs over lyrical content. But I guess it's not for you which is also cool! 

[tyler k 3,380]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

barely any depth and are for the most part extremely superficial.

surely you listened to the whole album.... sympathy is a knife, rewind, i might say something stupid, girl so confusing, so i, i think about it all the time are extremely deep and express a lot of complicated emotions that i don't think ive seen a pop album do in a long time. 

like when else have we gotten a song about the conflicting feelings she's having about motherhood over a PC Music inspired beat? that's some deep sh*it sorry

[StrawberryBlond 13,481]

2 hours ago, Karl said:

Sonically she is daring and pushes pop sounds forward, lyrically she is being vulnerable on this album and using a personal lyrical style like she's texting her mates, some of them don't even rhyme. For a popstar it's very out the box and left field, critics (and me) love that ****, they love someone who does it a little different and messy, rather than putting together a solid but predictable album like a lot of the ones this year so far. Plus it's full of bangers, critics tend to favour new sounds and ways of making songs over lyrical content. But I guess it's not for you which is also cool! 

It's a matter of opinion if she moves pop sounds forward. Her production is very polarising or I've heard them before, hardly a new thing. She's said herself she bases a lot of her sounds on 90's tracks. Like others said, I thought she was going to make this a proper rave album from beginning to end so to hear it mixed with more mid range songs and ballads seems like the concept wasn't fully recognised. I thought it was maybe going to sound like Pink Diamond all the way through so for none of the tracks to take it to that level was a bit of a missed opportunity. I disagree that being experimental is better than being solidly good. If it's not perfect, why are we praising it for being so? I think the idea of favouring new sounds over lyrical content is odd. Something being experimental doesn't make it good. If you want to focus on production, listen to instrumentals. Not focusing on lyrics goes against the point of listening to a song. To me, to get an album ranked in the 90's, you have to be lyrically excellent and to see albums that are lyrically excellent not get rated as high just feels like critics aren't doing their job right. 

2 hours ago, tyler k said:

surely you listened to the whole album.... sympathy is a knife, rewind, i might say something stupid, girl so confusing, so i, i think about it all the time are extremely deep and express a lot of complicated emotions that i don't think ive seen a pop album do in a long time. 

like when else have we gotten a song about the conflicting feelings she's having about motherhood over a PC Music inspired beat? that's some deep sh*it sorry

All those songs deal with those issues from a surface level perspective. All of those topics have been dealt with deeper and better by other artists. I listen to multiple pop albums every year that sing about these things better, I don't get your assertion that this is the first pop album in a long time to do this. 

Yes, that was a deep topic and she could have taken it even deeper but stopped just when things were getting interesting. The refusal to take it any deeper than surface level was the frustrating thing. 

[tyler k 3,380]

3 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

All those songs deal with those issues from a surface level perspective. All of those topics have been dealt with deeper and better by other artists. I listen to multiple pop albums every year that sing about these things better, I don't get your assertion that this is the first pop album in a long time to do this. 

Yes, that was a deep topic and she could have taken it even deeper but stopped just when things were getting interesting. The refusal to take it any deeper than surface level was the frustrating thing. 

ive been listening to pretty much every new release (especially pop) for the last 3 years. I've not heard another song like "i think about it all the time" at all. 

I don't understand how you think the deeper topics expressed on the album are surface-level, like at all. lol 

[JazzGa 14,363]

gurl! (gorl...) [gerl??] it's so confusing sometimes to be a ... gurl (gorl?)[𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁...] {ｇｉｒｌ} 

[StrawberryBlond 13,481]

18 hours ago, tyler k said:

ive been listening to pretty much every new release (especially pop) for the last 3 years. I've not heard another song like "i think about it all the time" at all. 

I don't understand how you think the deeper topics expressed on the album are surface-level, like at all. lol 

Don't know if you consider her pop but Lana Del Rey brought up how she pondered motherhood and if her mental state would be strong enough for it in her song Fingertips last year. She also mentioned that at one point she just wanted to have a baby at 16. Halsey also sang on You Should Be Sad about how she was originally planning on having a baby with her ex before singing about her journey to eventual motherhood on her most recent album. Florence Welch also sang about how her and partner had an uncertain discussion about having children on her song, King. And lately we even heard that Britney's song Everytime all those years ago was really about the secret abortion she had.

I feel all those songs hit far harder than what Charli did here with this very short song which could've gone so much deeper but she didn't allow it to grow to that point. Sure, she's never brought this up before which is a first for her but it's not the first time we've heard this topic discussed in music. I hope she works out what's best for her and can still accommodate her music career if music is still her passion. 

[holy scheisse 20,811]

Wait… could girl so confusing be about Camila??? 👀

[Emigrante 9,356]

Von Dutch I dig

[hieronymus 8,599]

Anthony Fantano have it a 10/10

love this for her.

 

[Plastic Flower 2,395]

3 minutes ago, hieronymus said:

Anthony Fantano have it a 10/10

love this for her.

 

Damn.  

I'll watch this later, I really want to know what he said.