🟧 Is Brat a good album?

A txt conversation with Mark Costello.

Kyle Chayka: Are you having a Brat Summer? First the British pop musician Charli xcx was, then all of her fans were, then suddenly Kamala Harris was the presidential nominee and she was having one, too. Almost lost amidst the exhaustively explained memes is the actual electropop album Brat that Charli released in the long-lost month of June 2024, a time that I cannot even remember. Brat is a short, confessional, addictive set of tracks that are both backward- and forward-looking, nostalgic and new. The album feels joyful, fresh, human — a masterpiece that would stand up without the branding and marketing effort, though it certainly helped.

To figure out where the music stands versus the memes, I asked my friend Mark Costello, who is a theater designer and expert in multimedia installations. Writing is not Mark’s chosen medium, but he is a deep connoisseur of contemporary music and I think he’s amazing at text messages. So I’m treating you all to a txt conversation with him below. Of course, I (Kyle) am on the right and Mark is on the left.

Some vocab you’ll need to know if you don’t: Hyperpop, or PC Music, is a (micro)genre that draws heavily on late 90s and 2000s synth palettes and lo-fi computer graphics. Sophie was a hyperpop musician and producer who passed away in 2021. A.G. Cook is a hyperpop producer and a founder of the label PC Music; he has been Charli’s creative director and worked on Brat.