It's not just summer that's 'brat': the Charli Xcx phenomenon

This summer, with excellent timing after Joe Biden's backtracking, Kamala Harris's X (formerly Twitter) account was renamed 'Kamala HQ' and the cover image replaced with an acid green background featuring the same black lettering. It was a precise reference to the cover of Charli Xcx's album Brat, which she promptly posted on the same social networking site with three simple words 'Kamala is brat'. It did little good, given the results of the US presidential election, but Collins dictionary crowned 'brat' word of the year. The term dates back to the mid-16th century and in modern English, writes the Oxford Dictionary, means 'a person, especially a child, who misbehaves'. Over time, however, it has also come to denote an eccentric and rebellious style, as well as a cheeky and self-confident type of woman. The songs and the album cover immediately went viral, making the artist a real phenomenon.

Charlotte Emma Aitchison's sixth album is an ode to partying that weaves energy and candour together. It opens with 360 and Club Classics, a pair of tracks that with different rhythms make the mirror ball shine above the dance floor. The atmospheres are similar in Sympathy Is a Knife, where, however, Charli Xcx exhibits her fragility, recounting her paranoia - 'I have all these feelings that I can't control' - and stating that she doesn't want to force smiles, while I Might Say Something Stupid is a minimalist track that rests on the chords of a keyboard, but is equally sincere: 'Imagine I'm a mess and play the part'. Talk Talk is exuberant and subdued, Von Dutch weaves electro sounds reminiscent of the Bloody Beetroots, Everything Is Romantic samples American composer and producer Jae Deal. Rewind, Girl, So Confusing, Apple, B2b, Mean Girls and the concluding 365 decline the movement in various gradations of intensity, So I being another of the rare moments when the rhythm relaxes, in I Think About It All the Time Aitchison's sincerity is so crystal clear that he allows himself to make a confession of envy, 'She's a radiant mother and he's a beautiful father, and now they both know these things I don't,' he reflects after receiving a visit from a friend who has recently become a mother.

Four months after the release of Brat, in October, Charli Xcx released a remix version of the album, collaborating with many artists, from Ariana Grande to Caroline Polachek, via Dua Lipa, Lorde, Jon Hopkins, Troye Sivan and others. Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat retains the hedonistic spirit of the previous album, but is even more unpredictable, expanding the dimensions of what is in effect a cultural phenomenon. This is an achievement especially for Aitchison, who has a career of constant style changes behind him, almost as if he wanted to chase an audience that is now captivated by his music and the concept that Brat expresses: to be oneself, not to get bogged down in the obsession of necessarily having to be perfect.