Brat and it's completely different but also still brat by Charli xcx

Charli xcx Brat and it's completely different but also still brat

86
ChoruScore
10 reviews
Oct 11, 2024
Release Date
Atlantic Records
Label

Charli xcx's Brat and it's completely different but also still brat reimagines BRAT as a star-studded, club-ready director's cut that both amplifies and complicates the original songs. Across professional reviews, critics praise how the record uses remixes and high-profile collaborations to turn tracks into bigger, stranger emotional scenes while retaining Charli's bratty pop DNA. The collection earned an 86/100 consensus score across 10 professional reviews, a signal that reviewers consistently found the project daring and often triumphant.

Reviewers agree that the best songs on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat are those that pair Charli with strong guest turns: “Everything is romantic featuring Caroline Polachek”, “360 featuring Robyn & yung lean”, “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde”, “365 featuring shygirl” and the hypnotic “Club classics” remix recur as standout tracks. Critic narratives highlight themes of vulnerability amid fame, touring fatigue, party-as-survival and remix as reinvention. Several writers frame the album as a tribute to underground influences and friends - notes of SOPHIE and DJ-set sequencing appear often - while others emphasize how the reworks sharpen lyrical moments about celebrity scrutiny and isolation.

While many reviews celebrate the project as an inventive expansion of BRAT, some critics note its messier, overwhelming edges: a few remixes feel maximalist to the point of brutality even as others deepen emotional payoff. Taken together, the critical consensus suggests Brat and it's completely different but also still brat is a compelling, sometimes chaotic companion that makes a persuasive case for Charli's curatorial boldness and cements several tracks as essential listening. Scroll down for full reviews and track-by-track takes on why these collaborative reworkings matter.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

360 featuring robyn & yung lean

5 mentions

"the opening “360” is an all-star Swedish summit with “intellipop” pioneer Robyn and rapper Yung Lean."
Variety
2

Girl, so confusing featuring lorde

3 mentions

"the Lorde remix, which broke the internet upon its release in June, is as innovative lyrically as the others are musically."
Variety
3

Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek

5 mentions

"Caroline Polachek’s retake of “Everything Is Romantic” relocates bits of Charli’s vocal into a muted, low-key treatment reminiscent of Imogen Heap;"
Variety
the opening “360” is an all-star Swedish summit with “intellipop” pioneer Robyn and rapper Yung Lean.
V
Variety
about "360 featuring robyn & yung lean"
Read full review
5 mentions
83% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

360 featuring robyn & yung lean

5 mentions
100
02:09
2

Club classics featuring bb trickz

4 mentions
100
02:54
3

Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande

5 mentions
97
02:34
4

I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 & jon hopkins

3 mentions
75
04:10
5

Talk talk featuring troye sivan

2 mentions
83
02:53
6

Von dutch a. g. cook remix featuring addison rae

3 mentions
85
02:37
7

Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek

5 mentions
100
03:23
8

Rewind featuring bladee

2 mentions
58
02:42
9

So I featuring a. g. cook

4 mentions
100
04:39
10

Girl, so confusing featuring lorde

3 mentions
100
03:25
11

Apple featuring the japanese house

2 mentions
78
02:37
12

B2b featuring tinashe

3 mentions
97
02:33
13

Mean girls featuring julian casablancas

3 mentions
76
03:46
14

I think about it all the time featuring bon iver

4 mentions
76
03:20
15

365 featuring shygirl

4 mentions
100
02:01
16

Guess featuring billie eilish

3 mentions
96
02:23
17

360

6 mentions
100
02:13
18

Club classics

7 mentions
100
02:33
19

Sympathy is a knife

7 mentions
100
02:31
20

I might say something stupid

7 mentions
94
01:49
21

Talk talk

3 mentions
62
02:41
22

Von dutch

5 mentions
84
02:44
23

Everything is romantic

10 mentions
100
03:23
24

Rewind

4 mentions
75
02:48
25

So I

6 mentions
100
03:31
26

Girl, so confusing

5 mentions
100
02:54
27

Apple

3 mentions
53
02:31
28

B2b

8 mentions
100
02:58
29

Mean girls

5 mentions
84
03:09
30

I think about it all the time

7 mentions
100
02:15
31

365

7 mentions
100
03:23
32

Hello goodbye

2 mentions
13
03:39
33

Guess

5 mentions
100
02:22
34

Spring breakers

2 mentions
10
02:22

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 12 critics who reviewed this album

Critic's Take

Charli XCX keeps the party alive on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, and the best tracks here push that hedonistic energy into gleeful extremes. The standouts are “Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde” and “Everything is romantic featuring Caroline Polachek”, which land as magnificently topped moments, and “365 featuring Shygirl” is a short but essential sesh soundtrack. The remix album cleverly reinvents BRAT songs while keeping the original rave DNA, so anyone searching for the best songs on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat will find these cuts impossible to resist.

Key Points

  • The best song is 'Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde' because the reviewer calls it 'the best thing here' and praises the pairing as magnificent.
  • The album's core strength is its reinvention of BRAT tracks and Charli's instinct for thrilling, provocative collaborations that keep the party spirit alive.

Themes

remixes and reinvention collaboration party/hedonism nostalgia vs reinvention

Critic's Take

In a wry, celebratory tone the reviewer treats Charli xcx's Brat and it's completely different but also still brat as a star-studded director's cut that leans into fame and reinvention. They single out the expansive collaborations that make tracks like “360” and “Club classics” feel like thesis statements, and they present the double-disc revisions as both intimate and ambitious. The voice is concise and admiring, insisting that the best songs on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat are the ones that amplify Charli's pop cunning while foregrounding guest turns - especially “360” and “Club classics”.

Key Points

  • The best song is best because it functions as a star-studded thesis statement about fame and anchors the record.
  • The album's core strengths are its collaborative breadth and the director's-cut approach that reframes the original material.

Themes

fame collaboration director's cut / revision

Critic's Take

Charli XCX treats Brat and it's completely different but also still brat like a DJ set, letting remixes such as “So I” and “Club Classics” recast the original songs with new purpose. The reviewer's voice delights in the album's club-ready textures and collaborative chemistry, praising how “So I” functions as a moving tribute to SOPHIE while “Club Classics” anchors the record with hypnotic bass. It frames the remix LP as a successful extension of Brat, clever curation rather than cheap rehash, and positions those best tracks as why listeners should search for the best songs on the remix album. This is Charli leaning into both pop spectacle and underground craft, and the remixes reward repeat listens.

Key Points

  • The best song is “So I”, because it functions as a moving tribute to SOPHIE with racing, glitchy production.
  • The album’s core strengths are expert curation, club-ready production, and collaborations that deepen emotional and sonic textures.

Themes

remix culture club dynamics celebrity scrutiny collaboration homage to SOPHIE

Critic's Take

In his vivid, conversational way Shaad D’Souza frames Charli xcx's Brat and it's completely different but also still brat as a delirious, messy triumph - unexpected, unfiltered, and dizzyingly fun. He spotlights tracks like “So I” and “B2B” as monuments to friendship and catharsis, noting A. G. Cook's fleet remix and Tinashe's unapologetic flex. The review emphasizes how the remix record relocates Charli's sense of self amid fame and memes, making the best tracks feel both intimate and arena-sized. Read as an answer to "best tracks on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat," the piece privileges collaborations that amplify loneliness into something thrilling and human.

Key Points

  • The best song, “So I”, succeeds because A. G. Cook's remix transforms grief into celebratory memory.
  • The album's core strengths are its fearless collaborations and its candid interrogation of fame, mixing messiness with emotional clarity.

Themes

fame and its costs collaboration and friendship messy pop experimentation isolation

Critic's Take

Charli xcx’s Brat and it's completely different but also still brat doubles down on what made BRAT essential while turning many songs into fuller conversations, and the best tracks - “Girl, so confusing”, “Everything is romantic” and the “Club classics” remix - prove it. Andy Steiner writes in brisk, evaluative sentences that marry affection with cultural indictment, noting how Lorde’s verse makes “Girl, so confusing” the beating heart of BRAT while Caroline Polachek turns “Everything is romantic” into a tender mentor-lesson. He praises the maximalist club moments, singling out the “Club classics” remix as the true star of the party tracks, and credits the record for widening its scope without tainting the original. The result, in Steiner’s voice, is a neon-green, risk-taking companion album that more often expands than diminishes its source.

Key Points

  • Lorde’s verse on “Girl, so confusing” makes it the emotional beating heart of the remix album.
  • The album’s core strength is expanding original songs through collaborators who act as meaningful foils rather than mere guest spots.

Themes

fame vs. self party as survival collaboration as foil reinvention/remix as reinterpretation

Critic's Take

Charli xcx keeps the bratty core intact on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, and the best songs - notably “Club Classics” and “Everything Is Romantic” - show how remixes can magnify both bite and beauty. The review revels in how “Club Classics” cannibalises 365 and B2B into a malfunctioning, thrilling blast, while “Everything Is Romantic” becomes exquisite, streetlamp-lit electronica. It praises big-name turns - Robyn on “360”, Caroline Polachek on “Everything Is Romantic” - and argues the remix project proves Charli and AG Cook are in an imperial phase. Overall the record is described as more thrilling and sometimes more brutal than Brat 1.0, making these remixed tracks the best on the album.

Key Points

  • The best song moments come from remixes that intensify Charli's synthetic electropop, especially “Club Classics”.
  • The album's core strength is marrying flamboyant artificial production with candid, vulnerable lyricism.

Themes

fame and its downsides synthetic electropop experimentation celebrity and vulnerability collaboration and remixing
95

Critic's Take

Charli XCX revels in reinvention on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, and the best songs - especially “Sympathy Is a Knife” (with Ariana Grande) and “Girl, So Confusing” (with Lorde) - underline why. Jem Aswad writes with the familiar mixture of historical context and celebratory admiration, noting how the Ariana Grande turn reshapes melody and lyric into something startlingly new, while the Lorde collaboration is lyrically innovative and internet-breaking. The album’s many collaborations - from Robyn to Bon Iver to Billie Eilish - feel like purposeful experiments rather than patchwork, making tracks like “360” and “Guess” standouts for both creativity and punch. Overall, the record reads as an alternate-universe revamp that proves Charli’s peerless ability to curate daring reinterpretations and deepen the original songs' emotional stakes.

Key Points

  • The best song is highlighted as “Sympathy Is a Knife” because Ariana Grande’s vocal and lyrical reshaping make it the album’s most newsworthy reinvention.
  • The album’s core strength is Charli’s ability to summon diverse collaborators to radically reimagine songs, turning a remix project into an alternate-universe reinvention.

Themes

remixing and reinvention collaboration fame and its pitfalls genre-bending

Critic's Take

In her irreverent, kinetic voice Caitlin Chatterton presents Charli xcx's Brat and it's completely different but also still brat as a remix-led triumph, singling out “B2b” and “365” as standout moments. The review leans into punchy, exuberant observations - noting how the Tinashe version of “B2b” confesses "I'm fuckin' tired, but I love it and I'm not complainin'", and how Shygirl turns “365” into a clattering, thumping triumph. Chatterton keeps a conversational, slightly wry register while emphasising that these remixes deepen Charli's vulnerability amid pop excess. The narrative foregrounds the emotional payoffs of “B2b” and “365” and the intimate reinterpretations across the record.

Key Points

  • The Tinashe remix of 'B2b' is the emotional high point, fusing exhaustion and triumph in direct lyrics.
  • The album's core strengths are its imaginative remixes, dancefloor focus, and heightened vulnerability beneath pop gloss.

Themes

remixing and reinvention dancefloor loyalty vulnerability amid fame collaboration

Critic's Take

Charli XCX keeps the party crank loud on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, and the best songs - notably “Guess”, “Girl, So Confusing” and “Sympathy Is a Knife” - turn into full-throttle showpieces. Sheffield writes in a breathless, gushy voice that treats each guest turn as revelation, so the best tracks on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat feel like collaborative triumphs rather than mere remixes. The duets with Billie and Lorde especially recast Charli's bravado as something more jagged and human, making “Guess” and “Girl, So Confusing” stand out as emotional high points. Overall the record reads as an ass-kicking party album that also deepens Charli's themes of fame, image and solipsistic glamour.

Key Points

  • Billie Eilish's turn on "Guess" is the album's standout, stealing the show and deepening emotional candor.
  • The album's core strength is reimagining Brat's punk-disco aesthetic through high-profile collaborations that add nuance and drama.

Themes

collaboration celebrity culture self-image and vulnerability party/club energy remix as recontextualization

Critic's Take

Charli xcx refuses the usual remix-package way, delivering a companion record that refashions songs with intention and consequence. On Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, the best tracks - “Sympathy Is a Knife” and “Everything Is Romantic” - stand out because they turn personal celebrity anxiety into vivid, conversational scenes. The album’s revisions make lines like "I’m trying to shut off my brain" land harder, and the guest turns rarely feel tacked-on even when Robyn is underused. Ultimately this is a reflective remix record that keeps Brat’s thematic spine intact while sharpening its points about fame and exhaustion.

Key Points

  • “Sympathy Is a Knife” is best because it sharpens Brat’s critique of stan culture with a resonant guest turn.
  • The album’s core strength is its self-reflexive reworking of original tracks to interrogate fame, parasociality, and touring fatigue.

Themes

celebrity parasocial relationships fame and its pitfalls touring fatigue remix/reinterpretation