As Brat summer faded into fall, the endless references to Charli XCX’s inescapable album seemed to reach a halt. But yesterday the English pop star beckoned in Brat autumn at the viral listening party of her remix album Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. Out today, it features everyone from Ariana Grande to Caroline Polacheck to Tinashe.
As a result of Brat‘s outsized cultural impact, the remix album had a lot of hype and unsurprisingly spurred conversation and jokes online. One fan wrote, “pressing play on this after months of teasing is how i imagine it felt when men looked at the pictures of their wives in their wallet while they were out at war.”
Aside from the previously released “Guess” and “Girl, so confusing” remixes featuring Billie Eilish and Lorde, respectively, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat is a true remix album. Each song is completely transformed by the featuring artists all with Charli XCX’s creative vision at the helm.
However, some listeners took issue with how different the “completely different” album is spurring a classic schism between new and old fans. One X user said, “the way i love when remixes are real remixes and not just a feature but in brat’s case… bring back the old songs jesus of nazareth.” A fan struck back at the haters with, “Some people are completely ignoring the ‘and it’s completely different’ part of the album tittle.” Another said, “at least we’re getting rid of the basic pop fans who were just there for the trend.”
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So far the most talked about song off the remix album is “Sympathy is a knife featuring Ariana Grande.” Before it came out people joked that Grande would get on the track and sing, “issa knife.” Fans were shocked and delighted to hear she actually did. Ever social media savvy, Charli XCX posted the link to a new text generator with an image reading “issa knife” backwards.
Since the album features so many artists, it has something for everyone. There’s the people freaking out bb tricks on “Club Classics,” the Julian Casablancas heads laughing that he managed to sing about his divorce on a club album, and longtime fans celebrating Charli XCX and Tinashe finally sharing the spotlight after such long careers.
Before the remix album came out, Charli XCX hosted an exclusive listening party…at 3 p.m. on a Thursday in upstate New York. Dubbed the “unemployed people’s Coachella” and the “the ultimate test of who has a fake job,” images of the event rolled in. One X user wrote, “why does this look like that one movie were people get murdered in a cult in rural sweden.” Another captioned a video of fans recording Charli XCX at the event, “Not a phone in sight. Just people in the moment.”
Brat winter next?