NEWS
Charli XCX has confirmed the official death of ‘Brat‘ summer, and revealed who she wants to take over this year.
Following its release last year, ‘Brat‘ quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon, with both the concept of ‘Brat’ summer and the record’s simple lime green artwork becoming a meme as fans worldwide embraced the album’s hedonistic aesthetic and attitude.
The album’s impact even extended beyond the pop world and worked its way into Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, sparking a wave of serious political pundits trying and failing to explain the album’s ethos.
Now, though, it appears Charli has officially declared the summer of ‘Brat’ over, and has passed the torch to a host of her peers.
Closing her Coachella weekend two set on Saturday (April 19), Charli played her Icona Pop collaboration, ‘I Love It’, as the giant screen behind her on stage showed the text: “maybe it’s time for a different kind of summer?,” before listing the artists and directors primed to take over this year.
The list consisted of acts with recently released projects or new releases on the horizon, including Lorde, Addison Rae, PinkPantheress, Haim, Pulp, Aidan Zamari, Yung Lean, Ethel Cain, David Cronenberg, Kali Uchis, Perfume Genius, Sean Price Williams, Rosalía and Ari Aster.
Also on the list were Kogonada, Caroline Polachek, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joachim Trier, These New Puritans, Hailey Benton Gates, Turnstile, A$AP Rocky, Darren Aronofsky, Blood Orange, Bon Iver and Celine Song.
As images of the set have begun circulating on the internet, Charli has been sharing them on her Instagram story, seemingly confirming her passing of the torch.
Elsewhere in her weekend two performance, she enlisted Addison Rae for a live rendition of their ‘Von Dutch’ remix.
The singer’s set the previous week saw her joined by a handful of the artists featured on the ‘Brat‘ remix album, ‘Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat‘, with Lorde, Troye Sivan, and Billie Eilish surprising the audience.
She concluded that show with further cryptic messaging on the giant screen above the stage, reading: “Thank you so much Coachella. Does this mean that brat summer is finally over????? … Idk? … Maybe? … yeah cuz duh it was already over like last year. … wait… was it? … NO???… I don’t know who I am if it’s over??? FUCKKKKK…. Wait… I remembered…I’m Charli XCX… and honestly… I just want this moment to last forever…”
As the lights went down, the screen flashed: “PLEASE DON’T LET IT BE OVER.”
In a four-star review of ‘Brat’, NME wrote: “It all paints a picture of who XCX is in 2024. Growing pains, grief and aching doubts come alongside self-confidence, celebration and the knowledge of the place XCX holds in the musical landscape – indeed, she kicks off ‘360’ with the knowing: “I went my own way and I made it / I’m your favourite reference baby”.
“With ‘Brat’, XCX demonstrates that going her own way will always sound pretty good.”
Reneé Rapp is seen as a “huge inspiration” by SZA.
The 25-year-old artist performed SZA’s Good Days in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists and a harp player. SZA, 35, was deeply moved by the rendition.
She posted a short video of the moment on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Renee is a HUGE inspiration, energy, voice spirit.”
During her chat with the BBC, Renee shared her thoughts about the track. She said: “I mean, I love SZA. I mean, she was one of my favorite artists in high school. And she's remained one of my favorite artists to this day. I think she's amazing. She's also, I mean, she's an incredible songwriter, but I think because she has so much swag. People don't realize how good of a singer she is. She's a fantastic vocalist and is really, really, really articulate. And I don't cover a lot of songs anymore. So I wanted to cover something that was, like, slightly challenging and also really vocally impressive, and frankly, hard for me to do.”
Renee is currently in the middle of promoting her second album, Bite Me, and opened up about how much more enjoyable it was to create compared to her first project.
She explained: “I mean, I feel like everything was incredibly different. I stopped listening to people that don't make music, because if you don't make music, then why the hell am I listening to you. And I also think the biggest difference, I think I just got a lot better. I think I have just become a better songwriter. I think I understand how to make pop music now in a way that I didn't really before. And I was very sure about what this album was and thematically, what it needed.
“So I felt like I was quite like, headstrong in like, what was gonna work and what wasn't. Because, nobody knows something better than yourself. I think a lot of things were different. I also just, like, had a lot of fun making it, like, I made it with like, three people, mostly, like, it was always like, four of us in the studio all the time, and we got so close, and some of us were already so close. So it was also just like a mess. It was such a mess, like we were just tweaking every day. It was so fun. And I don't think I enjoyed making the first one as much.”
