I have been a Charli XCX fan since True Romance and she is someone who has never stopped surprising me. But even as someone who has seen her career grow and grow and take wild directions, not even I could have thought Brat would have become the cultural juggernaut it has. With shock and twist around every turn and unprecedented commercial success and pop culture impact into the zeitgeist, it’s been a ride. Charli XCX turns 32 today, and dropped a Guess remix with Billie Eilish to celebrate. Charli XCX, here’s your present – all 23 Brat songs and remixes definitively ranked.
23. Hello goodbye
There isn’t a bad song on Brat. Not one. This song is literally amazing. Sadly, taking the bottom spot is the one that kicks off the album’s deluxe edition. I love how Charli’s vocals sound on Hello Goodbye, but the song has more of the spirit of her previous album Crash than it does Brat and think it gets overshadowed by those bigger, bolder and better.
22. Mean girls
Love that wild piano and the Lana Del Rey in your AirPods shoutout, but there’s something a bit vacuous about Mean Girls that holds it back from standing amongst the era’s upper echelon.
21. I think about it all the time
A really beautiful song in which we get to hear Charli be super vulnerable about her inner conflict on starting a family and her career, and debating what she wants out of the next chapter of her life. This is an amazing and really personal song and I feel bad ranking it low – I suppose it’s just not at the top of my priorities to listen to when I’m bumpin’ that. I feel like I enjoy it best on its own and not in the tracklist, if that makes sense.
20. Rewind
Love this banger that goes balls to the wall and talks about how Charli is an artist who exists in the in-between of big commercial success and underground acclaim. She wrote this after Speed Drive did so well from the Barbie soundtrack, and whilst I love the subject matter I think its simplicity just makes it get a bit outshone.
19. B2b
Might get attacked and tomatoed for this one because I know people really cherish it. Was my least fave of the teaser singles we got before Brat by miles and whilst I have warmed up to it a lot, its relentless and empty banger nature works great in the club but just doesn’t make me feel as much as other songs on the record do.
18. The von dutch remix with Skream and Benga
The most slept on Charli XCX moment of any song on rundown of Brat songs ranked.. Completely went under the radar, and whilst it’s a bit heavy with its punishing dub breakdown for a casual listen it goes so f*cking hard – and is perhaps the finest example of Charli working with those who made the music that inspired this entire era. The way it builds up is pure cinema, and I was lucky enough to witness Skream and Benga play it live at Glastonbury. It goes off and deserves your time.
17. I might say something stupid
I see so many hate on this one, and I get it kinda kills the banger flow of the album with the mood shift, but I think it’s absolutely stunning. Love it. Never has Charli sounded more Lily Allen influenced, a truly beautiful melody and well written lowkey moment on an album that otherwise barely gives you a second to breathe. Short and special.
16. Talk talk
Pure, euphoric bliss. Pulsing anthem Charli penned about how her and now fiancé George Daniel used to exchange stolen glances at awards ceremonies when they fancied each other but couldn’t pursue. You can literally feel the longing. The outro is one of the best on the album – “Talk to me in French, talk to me in Spanish, talk to me in your own made up language”. Everything actually IS romantic.
15. Spring breakers
It’s all got a bit XCX World here, and I love it. Not the brattiest song on Brat but one I’m so glad saw the released light of day as a bonus track because that interpolation of Everytime by Britney Spears is pure magical. Frenetic, self referential and goes hard in a club.
14. Apple
@charlixcx epic choreo moment incoming on sweat tour ! @Troye Sivan @terrencefoconnor
Talk about an organic viral HIT! I hope Charli XCX sends a few quid to that girl who invented the TikTok dance because she’s just given her a hit for life. To think Charli nearly didn’t put this song on the album at all!!!
13. So I
A song honestly sometimes too sad to hit play on. Has its place on Brat even if it’s so devastating because anyone who knows and loves Charli feels the same about SOPHIE and her importance not only on this record but pretty much the entire pop and electronic industry. Such a special song, not just because of the heartbreaking subject matter but because Charli always frames it to always be about Sophie and not about her. Lyrically, Charli comes out of this song looking bad – it’s incredibly vulnerable. The way she writes about her regrets in how she handled the friendship and how she can’t make things right the way she wishes she could is devastating. Rest in power, SOPHIE – one of the biggest losses ever.
12. Girl, so confusing
A truly brilliant song that would be ranked top three songs on Brat if Charli XCX hadn’t dropped the remix and made this version the less essential one. It’s such a gutsy song, not just for its provocative lyrics that obviously would have people talking but again how Charli writes in a way that highlights her own insecurity rather than ever just slagging someone off in the industry. The production on the verses goes impossibly hard.
11. Guess featuring Billie Eilish
The fact that Charli XCX is bagging a Billie Eilish collab after first saying in 2017 she’d love to work with her is just music to my ears. Not quite as essential as the original version of Guess in my opinion, but hearing Billie Eilish and Charli trade flirty verses to each other with a nice dollop of Taylor Swift shade thrown in for good measure after the chart blocking debacle is a pop culture moment for the ages. And WHAT a video.
10. Club Classics
If I had a nitpick with Brat, right – I’d have this as the opener over 360. 360 second, Club Classics first. I think it’s the perfect opener to the album and the era – it’s a call to arms. Wanting to hear the Club Classics and knowing they’re coming on the rest of the record? Bliss. Just genius work from George Daniel to sample that old Charli interview, and perfect Charli shouting out friends and collaborators in the verses. Instant hit, and perfect way to boot off the best Charli XCX songs on Brat ranked.
9. The von dutch remix with addison rae and a.g. cook
I love that with the Brat lead single Von Dutch, it feels like Charli had two distinctly different ideas for how she wanted it to sound. We got the main version, and we also got what could have been – a frenetic, hyperpop reimagining that has Addison Rae on board giving us the most iconic adlibbed scream of all time. I just love how unique both versions are, and I LOVE Charli consistently giving space to the ironic and actually iconic Addison Rae and her ascension to credible music icon.
8. Sympathy is a Knife
The first song we got to on Brat that we hadn’t already heard before the album release, and just instantly a classic. Truly, TRULY special song that has potentially the most belt along banging chorus on the whole record. Love the savage verses and how strained her vocals sound on the chorus. She came on this cut mad as hell!
7. The 360 remix with robyn and yung lean
Ignore the hilarious (and alas true) analysis of this remix which said Robyn’s verse sounded like she was doing a RuMix in the top four of RuPaul’s Drag Race – this song is a fun reimagining of an already incredibly fun rammer. Hearing Charli and Robyn work together is so special to me, and I love that this song lets both its featured artists say why they’re so important and such legends. When Robyn says “Got everybody in the club dancing on their own” I feel like tearing up. Again, feel like this one is a bit underrated and deserves a lot more love. Pick it up DORLIN London CORLIN!
6. Guess
The original Guess is a linkup between Charli XCX and The Dare – an artist I think is making some of the most exciting music right now, period. I love how it fuses both their styles in perfect harmony, a clear cut standout from the bonus edition that was on its hands and knees showing why it deserved to get a single remix released. The lyrics are filth, the beat is dirty, it goes hard – hugely wow and I’m glad it’s about to get even more notoriety even if I prefer the OG to the Billie mix.
5. Everything is romantic
Top five Charli XCX songs on Brat ranked hits its top five – and here we have the best written song on the album. Period. Written whilst Charli XCX was on holiday in Italy, the listing nature of its lyrics conjures the most vivid vibes possible you literally think you’re there with her. And that’s before she dropped the video on Instagram of a highlights reel from her Amalfi holiday. Has a huge ROSALÍA energy to it – so those rumours that she’s on the remix better be true. Or else.
4. 360
An enduring chart smash that’s getting bigger and more beloved by the day. Have to bow. A perfect single, a perfect music video – the entire energy of being a little bit Bratty summed up wonderfully. All the namechecking just hits so good, the fact we’re all jumping to the A.G. Cook production even before we get to the instantly iconic “You gon jump if A.G. made it” – LOVE it so much. Living proof that a song can be both the arts and the charts.
3. 365
Probably the best song about partying and doing a key of co*ke ever made.
2. The girl, so confusing version with lorde
Honestly life changing. “Let’s work it out on the remix” will be studied in pop culture classes for evermore as a lesson in how genius it is to cash in on conversations and speculation and have two major pop artists being so vulnerable together and sharing their very personal matters in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re trying to get attention, but to genuinely share a moment in their relationship with the world. Like, they actually DID work it out on the remix. This isn’t a facade or insincere, and not many artists in the world could let us in so bravely. I love how “one day we might make some music, the internet would go crazy” was not just a quip but a literal prophecy. Insanely great.
1. Von dutch
A song that could quite literally raise me from the grave. I hear Von dutch and I feel like I could kick a door of its hinges. I do not know how anyone drives to this song without speeding up. It is a health hazard. An alarm clock. A shot of vitamins. A bag of MDMA. Von dutch is it all, and it’s the perfect lead single. Charli has never sounded so self assured and in control of her life, brand and career. The perfect sampling of Bodyrox’s dirty Yeah Yeah 00s classic that clearly is such an inspiration on everything that Charli wanted for Brat never feels derivative, it feels like it was born to be living that life Von Dutch. Never gets old and never will. The way when it plays live the entire room throws their bodies around without a second thought is everything Brat was intended to be, and there’s no other place for it to be ranked than at the top of all the songs in this era that will define 2024 in pop culture and beyond.
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