Charli XCX Was Leading Pop Music Way Before Brat

Brat summer, y'all! Am I right? Let's get messy, wear neon green, and pick up a smoking habit.

Who knew that the girl who sang that "Boom Clap" song and the chorus for Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" would ever pop into the mainstream consciousness again?

I did. I knew. I've been telling anyone who would listen for years now. (Ask my friends — they are tired of hearing me talk about it.)

If you only know Charli XCX for the aforementioned songs or the viral "Apple" dance on TikTok, you really don't know her at all. For nearly the last ten years, the 32-year-old British singer-songwriter has been crafting some of the most boundary-pushing pop music alongside a cavalcade of experimental collaborators who only help bring out the best in her.

There is this misunderstanding that Charli, born Charlotte Aitchison, was some independent artist struggling to achieve mainstream success before Brat came along. That's not true at all. She signed a major-label record deal with Atlantic at 18, which proved to be both a blessing and a curse for the singer. She released her debut album, True Romance, when she was 20, all while having already scored a major hit when she wrote and featured on "I Love It" with Icona Pop the year before.

While True Romance didn't light up the Billboard charts, it was a solid synthpop effort that showcased her songwriting skills, especially on tracks like "Nuclear Seasons," "Stay Away," and "Grins." Unfortunately, as a young woman in the industry, it was evident that Charli was still finding her sound, leading to her more uneven follow-up, 2014's Sucker. Charli herself has said the album isn't her favorite, and you can easily hear why. On the record, Charli and her producers try to go for a new wave, punk-ish sound that doesn't exactly work. Worse of all, despite the inclusion of "Boom Clap," which appeared on the soundtrack for the movie The Fault in Our Stars, the album failed to make Charli a household name.

So what did Charli do after releasing two albums that barely made a blip on the charts? She scavenged for a new sound and found it in the London underground.
After a former boyfriend played some tracks by Scottish producer Sophie, Charli felt an immediate draw to what she was hearing and quickly got in touch with her, asking to collaborate. Those early recording sessions yielded Charli's 2016 EP Vroom Vroom. It's a four-track offering of future pop that sounds like nothing that existed before it and still feels forward-thinking today. Fans love the EP's title track so much that it has earned a permanent spot on her live setlist since its release.

Working with Sophie led her to link up with producer A.G. Cook and the rest of his PC Music crew, after which Charli's creative output blossomed. In 2017, she released two mixtapes, Number 1 Angel and Pop 2, the latter being regarded as a statement about what pop could be. Pop 2's magnum opus is perhaps "Track 10," a glitchy futuristic pop ballad that feels like a cathartic release of pent-up emotions. It remains to this day one of Charli's best songs she's ever released.

Finally, in 2019, she released the proper follow-up to Sucker with Charli. Honestly, this should have been the album that broke Charli into the mainstream. It perfectly teeters the line between experimental and conventional pop exceptionally well, with tracks like "Gone," "1999," and "White Mercedes" begging to be belted out in an arena setting. Unfortunately, the album underperformed, and the pandemic cut its promotional cycle short.

Still, Charli is nothing if not a workaholic — a characteristic she admits leads to only having friendships that also involve working relationships. A pandemic would not slow down the breakneck speed at which she releases projects.

In 2020, at the peak of lockdown, Charli announced she would record and release her fourth studio album, How I'm Feeling Now, in just five weeks. She also stated that she would take fans along for the ride, getting their input on everything from cover art to lyrics. This led to her releasing what was her strongest album to date, a lo-fi experimental pop album that addresses her romantic relationship at the time, her mental health, and her longing to get back to partying. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize, one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious music awards. And if people had been paying attention to Charli at the time, she would have surely earned a Grammy nomination or two.
If you love Brat for its unconventional production, How I'm Feeling Now should be the next album of hers you listen to. It's abrasive, confessional, and gorgeous all at the same time.

So, what did she release next? A sellout album, of course. Crash, released in 2022, is a more paint-by-the-numbers pop album, which Charli says was meant to close out her five-album deal with Atlantic. Unfortunately, it felt more like a creative stumble for the singer, with the album lacking the experimentation she had become known for at this point. It has its high points — tracks like "Constant Repeat" and "Every Rule" — but it felt like the music the rest of pop's middle class was releasing.

But if Crash was her selling out, Brat was Charli returning to her roots. The abrasive production and confessional lyrics returned, but this time, they were more in-your-face and stream-of-consciousness. It would be tragic if all anyone remembers of Brat is #bratsummer, "Kamala IS brat," and the "Apple" dance. Charli's sixth album broke through the mainstream not because she changed her sound to appeal to a broader audience but because a wider scope of listeners finally caught up to her genius.

Now, with the Sweat Tour, her coheadlining tour with Australian singer and collaborator Troye Sivan, set to land in Miami on Saturday, October 5, for a sold-out show at the Kaseya Center, it will feel like Charli is finally "getting her flowers." Charli has performed in Miami several times over the years, including at the Garret above Grand Central while promoting True Romance, her Femmebot Fantasy party at 1306 after opening for Taylor Swift at Hard Rock Stadium for the Reputation Tour, and her headlining performance during Wynwood Pride at Oasis Wynwood.

This time, though, we're all going to dance to her, her, her, her, her.

Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. With Shygirl. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 5, at Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 786-777-1000; kaseyacenter.com. Sold out.