Music / BRAT

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BRAT is the sixth studio album by Charli XCX, released in June 2024 by Atlantic Records, the first album after she renewed her record deal following its conclusion with 2022's CRASH.

After releasing CRASH — which, by Charli's own admission, was her "major label Sell-Out" record in attempting to play the mainstream pop game — Charli decided to pursue a new sound consisting of everything that that album wasn't. Instead of deliberately playing into the manufactured artifice of the mainstream industry, she returned to her experimental hyperpop sound that she had been pursuing since her 2016 Vroom Vroom EP — resuming her working partnership with producers in the now-dormant PC Music label, including A. G. Cook and EASYFUN — along with evoking underground club music, inspired by her roots as a musician from performing in the illegal UK rave scene.

In addition to the sound, Charli's shifted her lyrical focus to being the most blunt and direct it's ever been, featuring a hearty dosage of brash "mean girl" attitude celebrating the life of being a Hard-Drinking Party Girl, but also candid introspection over Charli's sense of self, including anxiousness towards what will happen when the party inevitably dies down. From that, BRAT is simultaneously Charli's most aggressive and confrontational yet honest and vulnerable record to date.

Three days after release, a deluxe edition was released titled Brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not, which, as the title indicates, adds three bonus tracks not on the main album. In addition, various remixes featuring additional artists came out during the summer of 2024 — including for "360" featuring Robyn and Yung Lean, "Von dutch" with A. G. Cook and Addison Rae, "Girl, so confusing" with Lorde, "Guess" with Billie Eilish, and "Talk talk" with Troye Sivan. The full remix album titled Brat and it's completely different but also still brat was released in October 2024, with a surprise remix of "Spring breakers" featuring Kesha being added three days after release.

The Moment, a Mockumentary detailing the slightly fictionalized events of the albums meteoric rise and the subsequent arena tour, premiered at Sundance before releasing in theatres on January 30th, 2026.

Tracklist:

1. "360" (2:15)
2. "Club classics" (2:33)
3. "Sympathy is a knife" (2:31)
4. "I might say something stupid" (1:49)
5. "Talk talk" (2:41)
6. "Von dutch" (2:44)
7. "Everything is romantic" (3:23)
8. "Rewind" (2:48)
9. "So I" (3:31)
10. "Girl, so confusing" (2:54)
11. "Apple" (2:31)
12. "B2b" (2:58)
13. "Mean girls" (3:09)
14. "I think about it all the time" (2:15)
15. "365" (3:23)
16. "Hello goodbye" (Bonus Track) (3:39)
17. "Guess" (Bonus Track) (2:22)
18. "Spring breakers" (Bonus Track) (2:23)

Brat and it's completely different but also still brat:

1. 360 featuring robyn and yung lean (2:09)
2. Club classics featuring bb trickz (2:54)
3. Sympathy is a knife featuring ariana grande (2:34)
4. I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 & jon hopkins (4:10)
5. Talk talk featuring troye sivan (2:53)
6. Von dutch a. g. cook remix featuring addison rae (2:37)
7. Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek (3:23)
8. Rewind featuring bladee (2:42)
9. So I featuring a.g. cook (4:39)
10. Girl, so confusing featuring lorde (3:25)
11. Apple featuring the japanese house (2:37)
12. B2b featuring tinashe (2:33)
13. Mean girls featuring julian casablancas (3:46)
14. I think about it all the time featuring bon iver (3:20)
15. 365 featuring shygirl (2:01)
16. Guess featuring billie eilish (2:23)
17. Spring breakers featuring Kesha (2:22)

I might trope something stupid:

• all lowercase letters: Zig-zagged; the album is marketed in CAPS LOCK as BRAT, but the album art features the word "brat" in lowercase (as did all her cover arts that were adjusted to fit the same theme around its release). Meanwhile, the titles of the songs are rendered in sentence case, resulting in formatting like "I think about it all the time," "Sympathy is a knife," "Von dutch," etc. Even Charli's own artist name on streaming platforms and marketing was adjusted to "Charli xcx."
• Alpha Bitch: The protagonist of "Mean girls," a snapshot of bitchy, elitist, sneering hipster-girls who do everything semi-ironically and throw money around — especially those in the NYC scene.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Throughout the song "Guess," Charli wants you to guess if she's being serious about all the hardcore flirting and come-ons she's doing. It's taken further in the remix, where Charli flirts at the end, but Billie Eilish thinks you're a creepy stalker before they both ask you to guess if they're still being serious.
  • "girl, so confusing" is both a lament and tribute to an unnamed artist (in its original mix; the remix reveals it's Lorde) who Charli has no idea if they pretend to like Charli but hate her guts, if they just hate Charli, if they're just pretending to pretend to hate Charli to keep up their Sugar-and-Ice Personality appearances, or if they earnestly do like Charli but keep getting dragged away by other obligations or bad luck making it look like she hates her. Charli muses that she might just read too much into it and she definitely feels all of those things about the artist — hence, it's "confusing."
• Anaphora: The remix of "Sympathy is a knife" featuring Ariana Grande almost completely rewrites the original song to be about this scheme, based around illustrating the "knife" of pain and danger that surrounds being famous.
  It's a knife when you know they're waitin' for you to choke
  It's a knife when a journalist does a misquote
  It's a knife when a friend is suddenly steppin' on your throat
  It's a kn— when they say that you've been doing things you don't
  It's a knife when your old friends hate your new friends
  When somebody says, "Charli, I think you've totally changed"
  It's a knife when somebody says they like the old me and not the new me
  And I'm like, "Who the fuck is she?"
• Auto-Tune: The song "I think about it all the time" is notable for its complete lack of autotune and featuring Charli's slightly shakier natural singing voice, adding to the intimate nature of the song (which sees Charli considering becoming a mother and wondering what it would mean for her career).
• Bookends: BRAT starts with "360" and ends with "365," the latter of which is a remix of the former.
• Brick Joke: Early in the "360" music video, Charli shakily pours a glass of red wine while wearing a white t-shirt and standing on an exercise machine that's bouncing her up and down. Late in the music video, she's shown again with an enormous wine stain on her shirt.
• Broken Record: Being more inspired by club music where lyrical repetition is an expected genre element, BRAT, contains a lot of this:
  • "Club classics" has the sound bite "right now, right now" playing in the background of much of the track, with the second half additionally splicing up "it's like, it's like,"
  • The chorus of "Talk talk" features "wish you'd talk, talk / wish you'd talk, talk / wish you'd talk, talk / wish you'd just talk to me" and variations thereof.
  • The outro of "Everything is romantic" plays on a looping splice of "fall in love again and again" from earlier in the song.
  • "B2b" features a cycling loop of "Back to, back to, back to, back to you / I don't wanna fall right back to us / Maybe you should run right back to her / I don't wanna go back — back to..." with a breakdown that truncates it further to just "back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back..."
• Camera Abuse: In the music video for "Von dutch," the camera (the POV of an obsessive paparazzi chasing her through an airport) takes a vicious beating from Charli—it gets punched, kicked, hit with a suitcase, and even pushed down the stairs.
• Call-Back:
  • During "So I," Charli describes SOPHIE as having "power like a lightning strike," referencing the song "Lightning" from her previous album, CRASH, which was itself made in dedication to SOPHIE.
  • In the same song she says that Sophie "made [her] focus." This can be interpreted quite literally as Sophie produced Charli's song "Focus" in 2018.
  • Within the album itself, "360" begins the album while the Sequel Song and remix "365" concludes it. In addition to the song titles having similar number motifs ("360" as in 360 degrees, describing Charli being everywhere around you, "365" as in 365 days in a year where Charli is out partying), "360" features the lyric "666 with the princess streak," while "365" lists "dial 999, it's a good time."
  • The music video to "360" revolves around Charli and her fellow it-girls looking for the next internet girl to make into a big deal, with them choosing one of the waitresses serving them. That same waitress makes an appearance in the music video to "Guess," dancing among Charli's party.
• Celebrity is Overrated:
  • "I might say something stupid" is about Charli's feeling about fame, feeling "let in but still outside" and "famous but not quite," and "Guess" is about the scrutiny of being in the public eye, and having her privacy invaded.
  • "Sympathy is a knife ft. Ariana Grande" deals with the topic of toxic fandom and public scrutiny.
• Child Popstar: referenced on the "360" remix with Robyn and Yung Lean, who both, like Charli, started working as performing musicians at a young age.
• Creator Cameo: producer A.G. Cook appears on the "360" music video as he is shouted out ("You gon' jump if A.G. made it"), and The Dare who produced "Guess" and its remix, appears on the music video for the Remix a couple of times, including in the reflection from Charli's sunglasses at the opening shot.
• Dark Reprise: "360," a light, accessible synthpop tune, is remixed as "365," a hard-driving, hedonistic club banger.
• Darker and Edgier: BRAT is one of the most gritty and mature albums in Charli's catalogue, certainly more so than the return-to-basics CRASH that preceded it. Not only does it hunker down on her hyperpop identity with noisier, harder-hitting production reminiscent of underground club ragers, the lyricism is by far some of Charli's most personal and vulnerable, taking a more deconstructive, introspective approach to the Hard-Drinking Party Girl image she's crafted for herself, especially questioning her desires for love and intimacy that she normally buries under her brash partying persona.
• Death by Music Video: Implied at the end of "Von dutch" in which she and the paparazzi are both riding on the baggage carousel, motionless and badly injured.
• The Diss Track: Charli herself has claimed that "Von dutch" — addressing someone supposedly venomously obsessed with her and basking in the attention and control she has over them — is the only diss track on the album, though the target of ire not named.
• Double Entendre: In "360," "bumpin' that" refers to bumping a song. This comes up again in "365" which then brings in the double meaning of doing a "bump" of cocaine.
• Dynamic Entry: Billie literally crashes into the music video for "Guess", driving a skiploader truck through the wall of the house Charli is partying in.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Charli and Lorde on the "Girl, so confusing" remix.
• Female Empowerment Song: "360" is just as much a celebration of Charli's fellow woman as much as it's about herself, where she uses her place of fame and respect to serve as the model for all women around her to be the best, most powerful versions of themselves. Played for Laughs in the music video where Charli and a truckload of other famous "it girls" gather at a banquet to find the next "Hot Internet Girl" as part of a prophecy, otherwise their kind will cease to exist, which leads them to choosing a random waitress, with them showering her with advice on how to tap into that special je ne sais quoi.
  Gabbriette: Yeah. I like her.
  Rachel Sennott: Love her, totally waiter vibes.
• Food as Characterization: "Apple" sees Charli using apples — specifically with the adage of "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" — to describe her complicated relationship with her parents, describing them as being similar yet far removed from one another ("I guess the apple could turn yellow or green"), the possibility that she's inherited negative traits from them ("I think the apple's rotten right to the core"), as well as potentially her own desire to start a family of her own ("I wanna grow the apple, keep all the seeds").
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: On "Talk talk featuring Troye Sivan" has spoken word segments in Spanish and French by Dua Lipa
• Gratuitous French: On "B2b featuring tinashe" Charli drops the line "Dix ans plus tard et toujours en place (Yeah)" in the middle of an otherwise English verse. The line, roughly translated "Ten years later and still in the place" referring to both Charli and Tinashe having had hits in 2014, and having new career high spots in 2024, Charli with the album, and Tinashe with the single "Nasty".
• Grief Song: "So I" was made in remembrance of her close friend SOPHIE, who tragically passed away in 2021 at the age of 34. The song is not only a dedication of how great of an artist and human being SOPHIE was, but also an admission by Charli over her regrets in how she handled their friendship, lamenting the many times she would push SOPHIE away for the sake of her own pride, and how much she wish she stayed with her before she died.
  And I know you always said it's okay to cry
  So I know I can cry, I can cry, so I cry
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The concept of this is deconstructed (and arguably reconstructed) quite a bit in BRAT, primarily through the vector of what Charli actually wants from the hard-drinking and partying. Throughout many tracks, the lyrics come from the POV of someone who uses their art and partying lifestyle as an increasingly fragile mask to cover the doubts that plague them, becoming increasingly aware of the disingenuous, bitter, and unfulfilled aspects of herself. At the same time, she's able to identify aspects of herself — her desire to form committed relationships, uplift those around her, and very seriously consider her future beyond a vague promise — that reignites her confidence, which enables her to continue with the braggadocious ego that's gotten her this far.
• Hotter and Sexier: Brat and it's completely different but also still brat features some raunchy guest verses, as detailed in the Intercourse with You entry.
• "I Am Great!" Song: Half of the songs in the album are bittersweet tracks of Charli's more negative opinions about herself, but the other half is unapologetically braggadocious about how much of a badass artist she is, and it's just as sincere. "360" introduces the album and how much of an influence she is through all the women around her she elevates, "Von dutch" is an aggressive rager about her being the focus of gossip and obsession and how much she deserves it, "Mean girls" celebrates the openly materialistic, hypersexual, and gossipy queens of New York City and beyond (herself included), and "365" is another affirmative party girl anthem that provides Album Closure to the questions surrounding her sense of being. Also, on "Club Classics" one of the artists Charli wants to dance to at the club is herself.
• Identical Stranger: Implicitly referenced in "Girl, so confusing," where Charli addresses another female artist on her level and the comments of how their audiences want to see them working together. This was later confirmed explicitly on a sequel/remix to be in reference to Lorde, who people have been commenting look similar for years.
  People say we're alike
  They say we've got the same hair
• In the Style of: Charli has stated in interviews that she wrote "Apple" to evoke the songwriting style of Caroline Polachek, a friend whose songwriting style is generally known for being much more flowery, poetic, and metaphorical than what she normally does.
• Incompatible Orientation: In the remix of "Guess" featuring Billie Eilish, Billie sings, "Charli likes boys, but she knows I'd hit it."
  Charli, call me if you're with it!
• Intercourse with You:
  • The deluxe track "Guess" is without a doubt one of Charli's most outwardly raunchy songs. In it, she encourages the listener to guess what color underwear she has on, before going on to make some other suggestions.
    ''Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it
    Pull it to the side and get all up in it
    Wear 'em, post 'em, might remix it
    Send 'em to The Dare yeah I think he's with it
  • On "Talk talk featuring troye sivan", Troye also gets to the point:
    'Kay, here's the plan
    I wanna fly you out to Amsterdam
    I got a good hotel to fuck you in, I wanna—
  • On "365 featuring shygirl", Shygirl's verse starts with:
    Too hot, when I sweat, just lick me
    Touch and squeeze when the bassline hits me
    Are you gonna ride me?
    Harder than a BPM, beat match me (Yeah, I'm lovin' that)
• Lighter and Softer: The "So I" remix on Brat and it's completely different but also still brat takes focus on the good memories Charli had with SOPHIE in contrast to the sadness and regret of the original.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: The concept is something that's Charli's been recurrently fascinated with, most prominently on this album, where she makes a point to explore the dichotomy of an aggressively confrontational "mean girl" who puts up a bitchy attitude to cover up her fears and insecurities. On one hand, she laments how the culture of the modern, ultra-confident "it girl" leaves little room for sincerity, but gives praise to those who use their power and social clout to uplift others around them. Playing her part, "360" features plenty of shout-outs to her peers, with its music video containing plenty more in person to find the next "hot new internet girl," and "Mean girls" is an open celebration of the stereotypical "mean girl" with the power to grab attention through ego and style alone.
• Mainstream Obscurityinvoked: Discussed a few times, where Charli seems aware of how she's in a place of being generally well-respected and being plenty successful on her own, but she wouldn't be recognized as easily as some of her contemporaries, despite quietly influencing much of them and their own success in the last several years. From "I might say something stupid":
  I don't feel like nothing special
  I snag my tights out on the lawn chair
  Guess I'm a mess and play the role
  Used to live just for the party, door is open
  I'm famous but not quite
  But I'm perfect for the background
  Onе foot in a normal life
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The music video for "360" includes many internet it-girls meeting to "fulfill the prophecy of finding the hot new internet girl." Among them are Matisse Andrews, Quenlin Blackwell, Sakura Bready, Chloe Cherry, Greer Cohen, Anna Collins, Alex Consani, Emma Chamberlain, Gabbriette, Julia Fox, Isamaya Ffrench, Blizzy McGuire, Tess McMillan, Salem Mitchell, Hari Nef, Peri Rosenzweig, Rachel Sennott, Chloë Sevigny, Richie Shazam, and Niki Takesh (with A.G. Cook making a cameo as well).
• Master of the Mixed Message: "Girl, so confusing" laments Charli's inability to tell if her friendship with fellow semi-ironic pop star Lorde is her reading too much into what might be an acquaintance, a love-hate relationship played up to match Lorde's icy persona, actual hate, or an actual friendship — Lorde accidentally leaving her on read and never hanging out, despite promises to go out, made Charli unsure.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The album's artwork is a lime green background with "brat" written over it in Arial font. According to an interview with Vogue, Charli got very sick of female artists like her having to plaster their photographs over everything, including album covers, and went with something deliberately odd and confrontational "to trigger the idea of something being wrong." When BRAT was released, the cover art to all of her previous albums was updated across streaming platforms to match the same theme.
• Mood Whiplash: BRAT goes back and forth between intense club bangers like "Von dutch" and "Talk talk" and emotionally vulnerable ballads like "So I" and "I think about it all the time," the latter of which is also immediately followed up with the unapologetic acid house-tinged rager "365."
• "The Music Industry Sucks" Song: "Spring breakers" sees Charli threatening to bomb and burn down the Grammys for the shallow "authenticity" they demand while ignoring actually influential artists like herself out of sheer ignorance.
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Downplayed in the song "I think about it all the time," where Charli openly considers the idea of settling down and becoming a mother, inspired by a visit with a friend and her husband who had a child together. Charli remains hesitant, wondering how having a child of her own could seriously interfere with her life as is, but also considers the idea that it might give her life more purpose, and is aware that the time to make a decision is running out.
• New Sound Album: BRAT largely eschews traditional pop formula for a more minimalist sound reminiscent of underground club music, returning to noisy and quirky hyperpop textures, but arranged to be her most intentionally repetitive, gritty, and mainstream-unfriendly release to date.
• No Ending: "I might say something stupid," a song about Charli admitting that beneath her confrontationally bitchy "mean girl" persona, she's actually quite insecure and depressed, pointedly ends in an abrupt manner before the two-minute mark, seemingly as she stops herself before she reveals too much.
  I go so cold, I go so cold
  'Cause I don't know if I belong here anymore, I...
• Ode to Intoxication "365" and the remix "365 featuring shygirl" with the references to doing keys and lines, and on the remix "Can't see straight, yeah, I love it when the pill hits"
• Panty Shot: Exaggerated to extremes in the music video for "Guess." Everyone is flashing lingerie if they're not tearing it off, and the discarded underwear forms a gigantic pile that Charli and Billie wind up climbing.
• Parting-Words Regret: Implied in "So I," a Grief Song dedicated to SOPHIE. Charli describes a moment where she received a phone call "after Christmas" that she seemingly failed to answer — it's strongly suggested that this was the last chance Charli ever had to speak to SOPHIE before her sudden, tragic death in January 2021.
• Phrase Salad Lyrics:
  • "Everything is romantic" lyrically consists of various bits of imagery — ranging from spiritual to materialistic — that Charli implicitly defines as "romantic," seemingly in both the frivolous and sincere kinds.
    Early nights in white sheets with lace curtains
    Capri in the distance
    In a place that can make you change
    Fall in love again and again
    
    Lemons on the trees and on the ground
    Sandals on the stirrups of the scooters
    Neon orange drinks on the beach
    Four generations make up a family
  • The Caroline Polachek remix follows the same format, but transporting the scene from a warm sunset in Italy to a rainy autumn in England.
    Late nights in black silk in East London (Everything is)
    Church bells in the distance
    Free bleeding in the autumn rain
    Fall in love again and again
    
    Silver scratch card in the canal
    Romantic like six-pound wine
    Dark in the park, Celtic graves
    Girl throws up from the back of a Lime
    Headphones on, I hit play
    All things change in the blink of an eye
• Precision F-Strike: While some songs on the album are more liberal with cursing, there are some songs where the F word is used for specific jarring effect.
  • "360"
    Legacy is undebated
    You gon' jump if A.G. made it
    If you love it, if you hate it
    I don't fucking care what you think
  • On the outro to "Sympathy is a knife", the penultimate repeat of the phrase becomes "Why is all this sympathy a fucking knife?". On the remix, both Charli and Ariana Grande finish their verse with
    It's a knife when somebody says they like the old me and not the new me
    And I'm like, "Who the fuck is she?"
  • "Mean girls"
    Calls him Daddy while she's fingering a gold cross
    And she's kinda fucked up, but she's still in Vogue
  • "Spring breakers"
    Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, in a big pink truck
    February 10th, and I'm gonna pull up
    Hey, Staples Center, what the fuck is up?
  • "Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek"
    Sleepyhead 'cause all the fucking foxes kept me awake last night
• Rearrange the Song: On Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, "Club classics", "I might say something stupid","Apple", "Mean girls" and "I think about it all the time" are remade almost unrecogniseable from the originals.
• Recognition Failure: At the start of the "360" video, Charli's song is delayed because the assembled women need to fulfil the prophecy and choose a new hot internet girl. Charli immediately tries to resolve this by picking a woman sitting at the far end of the table, only to be told "that's literally Julia Fox👁 Image
  ".
• Refuge in Audacity: "Spring breakers" sees Charli plotting what is essentially an act of terrorism against the Grammy awards. The acts described in the song are so far fetched and graphic, however, making it clear that this is a satirical character Charli is putting on. You have to admit though, it's kind of impressive to hear a musician be this outwardly dismissive of the Grammy Awards, an institution which has consistently been criticized for not recognizing true artistic progress.
• Revisiting the Roots: BRAT is a more holistic case for Charli, as while it's far from her usual pop-centric sound, it's more an evocation of club music that greatly influenced her during her youth, having been raised as a performer in the illegal rave scene in London during her teens.
• Remix Album: Brat and it's completely different but also still brat serves as one of these, released four months after the original BRAT (also acting as a double-album re-release as it contains not just remixes, but the original tracklist in its entirety). The remixes contain additional features from a star-studded lineup of fellow artists and acts, including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Lorde, Addison Rae, Kesha, The 1975, Caroline Polachek, Julian Casablancas, Tinashe, Bon Iver, the Japanese House, Shygirl, BB Trickz, and Jon Hopkins.
• Shaped Like Itself: The "Guess" singles cover shows Charli's lower back tattoo are words saying "Lower Back Tattoo".
• Self-Deprecation: Charli puts herself down just as much as she brags about herself on the album, and a recurring theme is how even despite her position of fame and hard-partying lifestyle, she's experiencing insecurity and fear that hits at a fundamentally human level.
  • "Sympathy is a knife" sees Charli lamenting the pressure of public opinion, the difficulties that come with identifying as being relatable and sympathetic to others in a position that inherently means she will be questioned for her intent lest she be called a fake. Charli specifically references "this one girl" who "taps [Charli's] insecurities," who Charli describes as representing everything monolithic in pop culture who she feels she could never be even if she tried.^note (the identity of this person isn't stated, but the most common guess among fans based off of various outside context clues was that she's talking about Taylor Swift, a megastar who Charli has worked with in the past, though Charli denied it)
  • "I might say something stupid" is Charli's rumination on her space of being "famous, but not quite" — rallying in a place where she plays the part as a rowdy, energetic popstar but also not "special" enough to be a widely-recognized phenomenon, where some of her confident, outgoing persona masks someone whose life is underwhelming, perfunctory and boring.
  • "Girl, so confusing" is a muse on a complicated partnership with a fellow pop star, with Charli wondering if she's reading too much and overreacting to perceived snubs, especially when she's guilty of doing the same things.
  • "Rewind" has Charli discussing some of the personal things that bother her — her face shape, her weight, her relationship with the paparazzi, and her seeming lack of commercial success on the Billboard charts — whether or not those things are valid for her to worry about, and her desire to go back to when she didn't treat those things so seriously.
  • "So I" discusses her relationship with the late SOPHIE, and especially highlights the mistakes she made in not being a better friend than she wishes she should have been. In describing SOPHIE as having been a massively positive influence who helped her focus as an artist, Charli laments the many times she would keep SOPHIE away at arms length seemingly for the sake of her pride, and regrets never appreciating the time they could have had together before she was gone.
    • A much lighter example comes in the remix with A. G. Cook, where she happily reminisces of the "best night ever in Arcosanti," referencing the 2018 FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, where all three of them performed a live set together. Charli briefly quips "When I look back, what the fuck was I wearing?"^note You be the judge👁 Image
      .
• Self-Empowerment Anthem: "360" is an open cross between this and a Female Empowerment Song, where Charli brags about her influence over the pop scene, and even as she shouts out her fellow woman and their worthy accomplishments, she takes credit for setting the bar.
  When you're in the mirror, do you like what you see?
  When you're in the mirror, you're just looking at me
  I'm everywhere, I'm so Julia^note (Referencing actress Julia Fox, who additionally appears in the song's music video), ah-ah aaah...
• Sequel Song:
  • "360" opens BRAT, while "365" ends the album, the latter reusing part of the arrangements and lyrics from the former, but remixed with far more dance beats and acid house production, being one last sincerely hedonistic ode to partying to close things out.
  • While primarily advertised as a Remix Album, Brat and it's completely different but also still brat is in many ways a direct continuation and expansion to the base album as most sequels, where a good chunk of remixes not only feature tweaked production and guest verses, but even new lyrics and performances by Charli to expand on the subjects of her songs.
    • "Everything is romantic" features illustrative Phrase Salad Lyrics of Charli experiencing a romantic summer sunset in Italy, while the remix sees Caroline Polachek describing a gloomy, rainy autumn in London. Whereas Charli describes picturesque scenery that makes her dream about falling in love, Caroline paints a quiet, melancholy scene of them exchanging words, with Charli hungover and calling from a hotel far away, venting about her anxieties and confusion.
    • The "So I" remix follows up a melancholy Grief Song about a fallen friend and the regrets over what could have been with an energetic, if still reverent celebration of the good times they shared together.
    • The "Girl, so confusing" remix follows up Charli's anxiety surrounding an unspoken artist by giving said artist, Lorde, a platform to speak her mind and for them to work it out in song.
    • The "Mean girls" remix delves deeper into the archetypal Alpha Bitch the original song unabashedly celebrates — Julian Casablancas depicts both said mean girl and her lover, both of whom appear to be in a cycle of admiration and breaking each other's hearts, illustrating their chemistry as objectively toxic yet still sympathetic, with the two yearning for more from each other.
    • The "I think about it all the time" remix follows up Charli's rumination over her future — namely her long-term music career vs. the idea of settling down and starting a family — lamenting that even though she's found bigger success and popularity since the release of BRAT, she still feels just as anxious over as before as more and more time has passed.
• Sexy Packaging: Defied; its album art is a low-quality Arial text on a lime background, which Charli purposefully chose because she got sick of using sexy pinups of herself on everything. The photos used as artwork for the various teaser singles do feature Charli in a more titillating manner, but they're not exactly flattering, being taken in rather surreptitious locations like they're low-quality selfies, with Charli featuring a dead-eyed glare in all of them.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Club Classics"
    Yeah, I wanna dance to me
    I wanna dance to A.G.
    I wanna dance with George^note Referencing The 1975 drummer George Daniel
    I wanna dance to SOPHIE
    I wanna dance to HudMo^note Referencing fellow producer Hudson Mohawke
  • "360" contains references to model and singer Gabbriette, actress Julia Fox, and A.G. Cook (all of whom appear in the video).
  • "Spring breakers" is in reference to the Harmony Korine film of the same name. The song also contains a sample of Britney Spears' "Everytime", which also featured in the film as part of a montage of various violent crimes.
  • In the deluxe track "Guess", Charli name drops The Dare, the producer of that song. The rhythmic hook of "Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it" is also an interpolation of Daft Punk's "Technologic."
  • "So I" references "It's Okay to Cry" by SOPHIE, whom the song is about.
  • The titular mean girl from "Mean girls" "worships Lana Del Rey in her AirPods." The song itself is largely believed to be about actor and controversial podcast host Dasha Nekrasova, who is an icon of the kind of hipster, semi-ironic champagne socialist NYC party girl that "Mean Girls" represents.
  • On "360 featuring Robyn and Yung Lean," Lean compares himself to "David Beckham in the noughties" and says he's in his "Elvis moment"
• Silly Love Songs: "Talk talk" is a fully sincere love song, documenting Charli engaging in a secret relationship with someone, and specifically the moment where they went from being good friends to something deeper and more special (Charli later confirmed it to be about George Daniel, who she got engaged with in late 2023).
• Softer and Slower Cover: "I might say something stupid" is already one of the slower songs on the original, but The 1975 remix slows it even further, practically turning it into an ambient post-rock song. The song's first half is largely of soft, detuned piano and Matt Healy's delicate interpretation of the lyrics amidst a quiet, fuzzy ambience, only slightly picking up with more guitars by the climax.
• Stylistic Suck: The cover is a grainy low-res .gif of the words "brat" on a low-effort lime-green background, like (and maybe it was) on MS Paint. brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not has similar effort put into both the cover and title.
• Take That!:
  • "Von dutch" includes some pointed barbs at the person "obsessed" with her, including the person only wanting to have sex with famous men and only being famous for "that little dance."
  • "Spring breakers," in which Charli says she's going to blow up the Grammys and set the red carpet on fire. Charli has made vocal her distaste for the Grammy awards before, but threatening terrorism is new ground.
• Take That, Audience!: "Guess," among the ad-libs in the outro is asking the listener to "guess the password to my Google Drive," referencing the hacking of her Drive account and mass leaking that infamously forced her XCX World album to be scrapped. In the sequel remix with Billie Eilish, the line is updated to "Still tryin' to guess the password to my Google Drive?"
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: invoked Discussed on "Sympathy is a knife ft. Ariana Grande"
  It's a knife when somebody says they like the old me and not the new me
  And I'm like, "Who the fuck is she?"
• This Is a Song: "Guess," both original and remix, ends with a line of Charli (and Billie Eilish on the remix) asking the listener how serious they think she/they are in the song.
• Title Drop: The word "brat" only shows up in the final song, "365":
  Who the fuck are you? I'm a brat when I'm bumpin' that
• Vocal Tag Team: All the remixes with guest artists feature this dynamic: "360 feat. robyn and yung lean" gives Lean and Robyn each spotlight verses, with all three going back and forth on lines throughout the song. Charli and Lorde trade verses before sharing the chorus on the "Girl, so confusing" remix, and Charli and Billie Eilish trade verses that culminates with them alternating the breakdown chant of "Guess, guess, guess, guess, guess, guess, guess, guess..."
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Brat and it's completely different but also still brat, being a remix album, features multiple tracks with guest rappers, including "360 featuring robyn and yung lean" (which was released as a teaser remix months earlier), "Club classics featuring bbtrickz", "Rewind featuring bladee" "B2b featuring tinashe" and "365 featuring shygirl". Of these features, "Club classics featuring bb trickz" is the most abrupt shift, with a beat switch and the verse being in Spanish.
• Work Info Title:
  • The singles cover art of "Guess" reveals that Charli's lower back tattoo is... words saying "Lower Back Tattoo."
  • The deluxe edition of the album is titled brat and it's the same but there are three more songs so it's not

Bumpin' that!