The problem with pop music in 2024 seems to be that many of the past decade’s imperial powers have lost sight of substance, instead making personal narratives the focal point of their work while expecting the critical mass to feed off lyrical subtext alone rather considering songwriting quality. Salacious petty details of a privileged life’s dramas are only as entertaining as the craft behind it. For every action, there is inevitably an equal and opposite reaction, and we’re starting to see signs of those with more discerning ears growing tired of it. Instead of pick-me energy pop stars with super stan power milking their weekly streaming numbers, we’re circling back to the era of the underdog success story and the path blazed by Robyn where flirtations with mainstream success are only worthwhile if there’s longevity attached to it. Without that, the other may as well have you doing it on your terms. Charli XCX has already been a part of the best and the worst of that world, having seen her biggest charting songs being that of the primary songwriting credit in other people’s hits and propped in front of Swiftian stadiums for the headliner’s own cred, all while fighting for her life out there as a forever It girl and a major festival act tentpole. Yet, in trying to achieve major star status, she’s never felt fully satisfied with the end result of becoming the perpetual artist influencer who has dared to shift the shape of pop — be it singles-ready, redefined as experimental, or in gleaming cinematic — which the rest steal from as she never achieves that same degree of recognition for herself. BRAT, her sixth LP and first album since renegotiating creative control under a new deal with Atlantic Records, is her definitive thunder boom clap back to all of that. No longer beholden to rules beyond her own, she told us she was going to make a “club record,” and unlike some artists who are more talk than walk (or in this case, dance) when drumming up their own album’s buzz, Charli delivers on all fronts. It’s an ultra-sleek synthesis of capital “B” electro-pop Bangers and post-hyperpop futurism aided by production from collaborative constant A.G. Cook alongside Cirkut, El Guincho, and Gaseffelstein riding shotgun in fueling her late night rave convictions. That sound itself puts her miles ahead of the current conversations going on stylistically, but if you want to talk about Charli, the person, too, she shares more than ever of her insides out on everything from surviving the pop machine, her relationship insecurities, her professional insecurities, (maybe) insights into a healthy rivalry with Lorde, (maybe) her plans to have a baby someday, and (absolutely) doing her most to make Sophie proud with tears in her eyes. Complete with a flawless album rollout that’s had everything from deliberately ugly album cover discourse, its subsequent memes, a record-breaking live Boiler Room session that celebrated party girl nostalgia with guest spots from Deux Mois favs Julia Fox and Addison Rae, inducting a first ballot class of Internet It Girl Hall of Famers in her Chloë Sevigny-scene stealing music video for the album’s hyper self-aware sizzle reel “360”, and A+ remixes already in the bag, BRAT is the new bench mark in what the culture should strive for in exceeding on substance and personal fodder in the same sweaty, out-of-breath heartbeat.

Highlights: “360”, “club classics”, “Girl, so confusing”

Charli XCX’s brat will be released June 7th on Atlantic Records.

Buy | Stream