Charli xcx: does new album hit as hard as Brat? – The Latest
episodePreviously titled “Charli xcx: does new album hit as hard as Brat? - The Latest” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
For her, it's about restless energy rather than somebody at the label being like, how do we market you this time around? So I made an album. It's really different from the last one. And I love it. And... There's a bit where she sings, jump off the stage today, maybe they catch you, maybe they don't. It's like she's affirming people, take a creative leap. I think you can also read it as like, come with me if you want while I do this, and also if you don't, that's fine.
From the Guardians today on Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hough. Charlie XCX, the British pop star, has spent nearly a decade being a real pop favourite, a bit of a kind of cult classic flying under the radar. But she obviously hit the big mainstream in 2024 with the release of the Brat album, which was this huge hit. culturally defining moment laura snapes you're our deputy music editor and you've given her new album five stars so clearly it's lived up to some very high expectations and followed on from the success of brat in your view
Yeah, I think one of the really interesting things about it to me is that there are so many expectations after Brat. Like, would she be able to do that again? Would she be able to have like a monocultural moment like that? And I think because it was such a hit, a lot of people really wanted her to keep making that sort of like big ratty kind of club music. And so I think she has defied expectations by making something. It has a smaller sound. It's rooted in guitars rather than synths, although there are synths on there. And for me, that element of surprise, I think, is really interesting. Also, how do you follow up something like that when everybody wants you to do what came before? And you've had this long career where you've kind of been innovating from the sidelines.
And then success is the thing that's maybe going to trap you in this one image that people have of you. I think it puts a really interesting sort of premium on like, how do you reinvent? Like, cause she's not the sort of artist who wants to do the same things twice. But also if you, if you go back to what you were doing before, you might like annoy the new fans. But if you also pivot in a really new direction, people are going to say, well, you're just doing it for the sake of it. So I think it's a really tricky thing to balance. And I think she also, she toys with that and she toys with the idea of like the cultural reset and like the evolution of identity, not just as a pop star, but also as people.
And yeah, Yeah, the first time I put the album on, very early on Wednesday morning, half past six in the morning, probably not the time to listen to a Charli XCX album. I didn't quite get it. And I was like, maybe it's a bit thin, I'm not really sure. And then I took it out and was listening to it in my headphones. And these days she has such conversational delivery. It's really like intimate and sort of off the cuff. And listening to it that way, the whole picture of it started to evolve for me. And I realised like, oh, I actually love this. I think it's genius.
How did Charli XCX break into the mainstream with Brat and why did it matter?
It's a lot subtler than Brat. And it's had very mixed reviews today. Like I've given it five stars. I think that's the highest it's got. Some people have given it two stars. But yeah, I think it's subtler, but I think it is just as smart. And I think that in time, and also maybe when it's had a live incarnation as well, she's headlining Reading and Leeds in August, it's going to start to come to life more.
So as you say, it's got this kind of very different style to Brat in that it's got these guitar riffs, it's got a little bit of synth, but it's not the massive club anthems that we heard in Brat. She herself has been a bit conflicted about whether it's a rock album or not, but certainly one of the lyrics in the first release, Rock Music, has the lyric, I think the dance floor is dead, so now we're making rock music. which has drawn a little bit of criticism from people who make dance music and also for her fans.
That song is tongue-in-cheek.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:46
2
How did Charli XCX break into the mainstream with Brat and why did it matter?
2:46–5:09
3
What expectations did Brat create for Charli XCX’s follow-up album?
5:09–6:33
4
How does Music, Fashion, Film differ sonically from Brat (guitars vs synths)?
6:33–10:42
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Today in Focus
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