Hi, everyone. Freakthony Outtano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of Charli XCX's brat and it's completely different but also still brat.

Here we have a brand new album from pop singer and songwriter visionary, Miss Charli XCX. Based on the hit album she dropped just earlier this year, Brat, a record that may not have gone number one on the billboard charts this year, but still managed to elevate Charli XCX's career to a new level and really become the pop zeitgeist of 2024. After all, we had a Brat summer, not a Short n Sweet summer. And Kamala is, in fact, Brat, not tortured poet.

Again, regardless of how the numbers pan out with respect to Brat, Charli has a lot to be proud of with this record, both personally and artistically. And she seems well aware of that fact because because this album cycle has certainly proven her to be an artist who strikes while the iron is hot, because the reception for Brat has led to Charli just not removing her foot from our necks because she's really been taking advantage of this moment to further the Brat agenda with all the touring and the interviews and the promo and the memes and the remixes, which have all been built into this new remix album here, which will likely be the last major push we are going to see behind this record, this victory lap of a project, which as far as remix albums go, is about as true as branding can get.

Brat, and it's completely different, but it's also still Brat.

Which, yes, that is the case because this album is Brat, but it's also completely different. But it's also still Brat. Yes, exactly. You get it.

Look, if you're watching this video, you most likely know what Brat is. You love this record. You know that I love it. Maybe also that I gave it a 10 out of 10. You most likely also know that a handful of remixes of songs from the original Brat record have come out since the album's release. These remixes have varied in quality as as conceptual angles.

We got remixes and versions of Brat tracks that seemed like Charli just wanted to do a bit of a crossover and throw down on a slightly new version of the song with artists who there's a lot of mutual adoration there, or there's just some friendly chemistry there, some promotional potential, namely the version of "360" featuring Yung Lean as well as Robyn and also "Von dutch" with Addison Rae, which are both messy and all over the place, but still fun to some degree, and I'm glad they happened.

Then there were some other remixes that weren't merely just hyped up versions of original tracks with an altered beat. No, we got other versions of songs where Charli brought into the fold another artist to add to the lyrical narrative of the track itself. The version of "Talk Talk" featuring Troye Sivan, in my opinion, might be a little blander than the original, yes. But I do like the way Troye adds to the track's themes of anticipation and seduction.

I also like the playful, silly, flirty verse that Billie Eilish brings to the table on the remix she's featured on for "Guess".

I love, love, love, love, love the reveal that is presented in the remix for "Girl So Confusing", which not only showed us who that song was supposed to be about, but it also brought Lorde into the fold to essentially turn this track from a musical monologue to a thoughtful dialogue; a heartwarming conversation between two alt pop queens.

We have much the same mix of approaches in this expanded series of remixes right here. We have moments where Charli is doing some cool, light-hearted, playful little crossovers and traditional remixes, like this new version of "Club Classics" featuring Bb Tricx, which I think is more or less aesthetically what most people would expect from a remix of a pop song. It's punchy, it's club-centric, it has a slick guest verse. It's fine, but as good as the production is, I do prefer the original track's super anthemic choruses. Plus, I feel like this remix leans a bit too heavily on vocal at its pulled from "365". Anyway, it feels more like a "365" remix in certain pockets.

Meanwhile, the actual "365" remix featuring shygirl is a total banger. It somehow goes harder with hype synth hits and revving bass in a fraction of the original's run time.

So yes, there are a couple of to be expected, very predictable type remixes in the tracklist on this project. But most of the tracks on this record feel less like regular remixes and more like narrative extensions of the songs themselves, where Charli and her guests bring deeper meanings to the original intentions of these cuts, which I think is a level forethought that a lot of artists don't usually put into their remix albums. Just like turning your hit songs into musical epilogues or like the pop star equivalent of director's commentary.

Case in point, the Tinashe version of "Back to Back", which sees both Charli and Nashe taking this opportunity to celebrate the respective blowups they've had this year and all the hard work they've been putting in to keep that momentum going.

There's also the new version of "Sympathy is a Knife" featuring Ariana Grande, which is flipped into a commentary on the way that the audience and the media can turn against you when you are at the peak of your career, which makes sense given just how much controversy Ariana Grande has been embroiled in in the past year and how the media is wrestling with how to, I guess, frame Charli XCX now at this point in her career, now that her star is rising again. Also, I love all of Ari's little vocal embellishments across the track. The song just has the right amount of Ariana Grande. Not too much, not too little.

There's also this new version of "I Might Say Something Stupid", which has essentially turned into this piano-backed Matty Healy-of-the-1975 meditation. His inclusion on this track, I think, is a bit of a nod and a wink, because if there's anybody known for saying something stupid, it's Matty Healy. Regardless, though, it's still a beautiful rendition of the song. Matty and Jon Hopkins just do a great job of turning this track into an intimate, very low-key little moment that is so skeletal, so stripped back, so tender, with Matty lyrically also wrestling with in his own way how he deals with his level of fame, his infamy as it were.

As long as we're talking about adding to the narrative, there's also this revamped version of "So I" with A.G. Cook. Now, if you guys remember, the original track was intended to be a loving and beautiful tribute to the late producer and songwriter SOPHIE. I love how Charli and A.G. essentially flip this new version into this diaristic sentimental trip down memory lane that rather than wallowing in regret, is now reflecting on warm and positive memories that Charli had over the course of her life with SOPHIE and SOPHIE's music.

If there's one more on the record that I think really succeeds on this front of extending everything about it, musically and narratively, it's "I Think About it All the Time" with Bon Iver. Now, if you remember, this originally was a bit of a shorty toward the back end of the record where Charli is giving us this very quick and intimate reflection on her womanhood, on her age, on her career, whether or not there is still any viability in pushing forward in pop music this deep into her life, dealing with the mental stress, putting off becoming a mother, which she obviously expresses aspirations toward doing. This new version of the track contains further thoughts on that as Charli is now not just reflecting on all of those things that she was originally wrestling with on the track, but now also all the attention that has been thrown her way since Brat has blown up. She now feels the pressure to dig even further into her career because things are going so well. It's only painful to listen to because her career becomes a prison.

But seriously, it is genuinely interesting to hear, especially given just how radically different her career has become in the last 6-8 months, just how her thoughts have changed and developed since the release of this album.

Now, there are other tracks on the record that try to dig a bit deeper with varying degrees of success. There's this new version of "Spring Breakers" featuring Kesha, which I think is a sensible inclusion on that track because in a lot of ways, in terms of her raunchy lyrical style and her overall ethos and aura, Kesha is very much a Brat kindred spirit. The first verse that she delivers here most certainly proves that. But the second is quite obnoxious. The pitchy autotune on her vocals is not working all that well, and I really would have rather have had an updated verse from Charli in the second half of the track anyway.

But as imperfect as this Kesha contribution is, It's not nearly as awkward to fit as Julian Casablancas's on "Mean Girls". I really do have a love-hate relationship with this version because I like the way the song is totally restructured. I think that's interesting. Charli's detuned vocals on the chorus are actually really daring and experimental. Julian's lyrical contributions to the track are not all that bad either. I like that he uses this as an opportunity to paint a picture of a really mean partner who is mistreating him and abusing him, and he's just internalizing all of this crap. Yeah, for sure. That's really mean. However, the autotune on his voice sounds absolutely terrible, and I have no idea why so many of his vocal lines on the track are like, ripping off melodic bits from "Owner of a Lonely Heart". But yeah, this remix is really a close but no cigar situation.

There are some bland and unceremonious additions to the remix album as well, unfortunately, namely Bladee and Japanese House on these new versions of "Rewind" and "Apple", which aren't terrible per se, but ultimately are just much more low impact when compared to the original versions. These tracks really had some big shoes to fill, a lot to live up to, and they just did not meet the moment.

Those are mostly my thoughts on all these tracks, but I would be remiss if I did not at least drop a mention of this new version of "Everything is Romantic" featuring Caroline Polachek. I love how this remix of the track really enhances and focuses in on the track's inherently cerebral montage qualities. I mean, the original track itself feels like a rush of intense, lovesick memories. This new version feels like a lot of the same, but it's presented in this much more sentimental, stark, and I guess, skeletal, minimal fashion. With bare, chopped up lead vocals at the start and the instrumental, the whole body of the track builds out as it moves along with Caroline Polachek's vocals in the background, sounding gorgeous, just soaring, incredible range. She sounds like a goddamn cello. It's just such a beautiful and elegant version of the song that I think, honestly, in a lot of respects, is just as good. I mean, as far as musical complexities and nuance, you could even argue it's better.

Overall, I will say with this version of Brat that is different but is also still Brat, I enjoyed what I heard pretty thoroughly. It is a remix album, and it's very rare that remix albums are good or that I go into a remix album with super high expectations. But this new version of Brat really did exceed what I thought it would be, could potentially be. That's due very much to the fact that most of these tracks don't feel like normal regular predictable remixes of the original songs.

Once again, like I have been saying, they feel like extensions, they feel like epilogues, they feel like additional music commentary, which I think just adds so much to the record, to the music. I think it will do the same for anybody who got a lot out of Brat as an album, as an experience. If you didn't, I don't think this new version of the album is going to have much in store for you.

However, if you are not on the Brat train yet, there is always time hop on and listen to the original record, and I am feeling a light 7 on this new, different, but also the same Brat.

Anthony. Brat. Forever.