Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat

Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat
Remix album by Charli XCX
Released	11 October 2024 (2024-10-11)
Genre	Electropop[1]
Length	50:28
Language	English Spanish French
Label	Atlantic
Producer	A. G. Cook Bon Iver the Dare Finneas Finn Keane George Daniel the Japanese House Jason Lader Jon Hopkins Julian Casablancas Novodor Styalz Fuego TimFromTheHouse Toby Wincorn Zhone
Charli XCX chronology
Brat (2024) Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat (2024)
Singles from Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat
"Guess" Released: 1 August 2024 "Talk Talk" Released: 12 September 2024[2]

Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat (stylized in all lowercase and mirrored) is the first remix album by English singer Charli XCX. It was released on 11 October 2024 by Atlantic Records. The album contains remixes of seventeen out of eighteen tracks from the deluxe version of her sixth studio album, Brat and It's the Same but There's Three More Songs So It's Not (2024), but also features the original tracks, thereby serving as a double album.^[3]

The featured artists on the album are Robyn, Yung Lean, BB Trickz, Ariana Grande, the 1975, Jon Hopkins, Troye Sivan, Addison Rae, Caroline Polachek, Bladee, Lorde, the Japanese House, Tinashe, Julian Casablancas, Bon Iver, Shygirl, Billie Eilish, Kesha and A. G. Cook. Cook and Finn Keane primarily handled production, George Daniel, and featured guests Bon Iver, Casablancas, and the Japanese House, among others, contributing additional production work.

Upon release, the record received acclaim from music critics, who considered it an innovative companion piece to the original album.

Charli XCX released her sixth studio album Brat on 7 June 2024 to critical acclaim. A variety of remixes of its songs were released throughout its album cycle before the announcement of a remix album, starting with the release of the "Von Dutch" remix with A. G. Cook and Addison Rae, on 22 March 2024.^[4] Subsequent remixes of album tracks, such as "Girl, So Confusing" with Lorde and "Guess" with Billie Eilish, fueled rumours of a "remix concept".^[5][6]

Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat was announced^[7] along with the release of Troye Sivan's remix of "Talk Talk" on 12 September 2024.^[8][9] On the same day, Rolling Stone announced that the remix album is set to be released on 11 October 2024.^[10][11] The remixes featuring Billie Eilish and Lorde would be a part of the album's track list, along with the remixes featuring Addison Rae, Yung Lean, and Robyn, that were released as a part of the rollout of its original tracks.^[12] Skream and Benga's remix of "Von Dutch", however, did not make the cut.^[13] The timing of the album's release also coincided with Charli XCX and Sivan's Sweat concert tour.^[14][15]

The album cover was posted with the caption "Brat and it's completely different but also still brat - out oct 11" on several of Charli XCX's social media accounts. These postings also included a link to pre-order the album within various streaming sites.^[16] The track list for the album was officially confirmed on 7 October when XCX gave a fan the track list during her performance on the Sweat Tour in Orlando, and encouraged them to share it online after the show. She later confirmed this on her social media.^[17][18] The album is being sold as a double cassette, double CD, and triple LP.^[19] Kesha's remix of "Spring Breakers" was added to the tracklist on 14 October 2024, three days after the album's original release.

Prior to the album's release, billboards appeared around the US, Europe, and Japan teasing new collaborations, confirming BB Trickz, Bon Iver, Julian Casablancas, Tinashe, Shygirl, the 1975, Jon Hopkins, the Japanese House, Bladee, Caroline Polachek, and Ariana Grande for the album.^[20] Writing for The Cut, Cat Zhang mostly negatively criticized the choice of featured artists, except for Grande, Matty Healy, Polachek, Tinashe and Shygirl. Instead, Zhang expressed her desire for features from Rosalía, the Black Eyed Peas, Vince Staples, Rina Sawayama and Lily Allen.^[13]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.4/10[21]
Metacritic	88/100[22]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[23]
Clash	9/10[24]
The Daily Telegraph	[25]
The Guardian	[26]
Rolling Stone	[27]
Slant Magazine	[28]
The Times	[29]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[30]
NME	[31]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 from 12 critic scores.^[22] The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? compiled 8 reviews and gave the album an average of 8.4 out of 10.^[21]

Concluding the review for AllMusic, Heather Phares declared, "Much more than a victory lap, brat and it's completely different but also still brat enriches the Brat listening experience and the understanding of Charli XCX's artistry. Fans know she's deserved this level of acclaim for years, but the creativity and generosity on display here is more proof that it's high time mainstream finally caught up to her."^[23]

Caitlin Chatterton of Clash awarded the album a score of 9 out of 10, praising its innovative sound and artistic direction.^[24] Rachel Aroesti from The Guardian described it as a testament to Charli XCX's "unstoppable" creative phase, giving the album a perfect score of 5 out of 5.^[26]

Writing for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield expressed that "the Brat remix isn't just a piece of promo product — it's an ass-kicking party album in its own right", extending the phenomenon of "Brat Summer" into autumn.^[27] Similarly, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani felt XCX created a "self-reflexive reaction to her success with a companion piece that's just as relevant—and just as reflective of the zeitgeist—as its parent album.^[28]

The Daily Telegraph gave a mostly positive review, highlighting the star power of the album's many collaborators, but questioned if the myriad features was a "cynical marketing ploy [...] designed to go viral".^[25]

• As with the original Brat, track titles are stylised in sentence case; featured credits are not enclosed within parentheses and are stylised in all lowercase.
• "Talk Talk" (featuring Troye Sivan) features uncredited additional vocals from Dua Lipa.
• Disc 2 mirrors the track listing of Brat and It's the Same but There's Three More Songs So It's Not.^[3]

• "Club Classics" (featuring BB Trickz) contains an interpolation of the original version of "365".
• "So I" (featuring A. G. Cook) contains samples of "Beautiful" and "WWW", and contains an interpolation of "Xxoplex". All previously mentioned songs written and performed by A. G. Cook, and additionally contains a sample of "OOH" by SOPHIE, written by SOPHIE and performed by Jaide Green.
• "I Think About It All the Time" (featuring Bon Iver) contains an interpolation of "Nick of Time", written and performed by Bonnie Raitt.
• "365" (featuring Shygirl) contains a sample of "Frequency", written by Chris Peat and Mark Archer, and performed by Altern-8.
• Both versions of "Spring Breakers" contain an interpolation of "Everytime", written by Britney Spears and Annet Artani, and performed by Spears.

Performers

Technical

• Idania Valencia – mastering
• Randy Merrill – mastering (track 5)
• Geoff Swan – mixing (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6–9, 11, 14, 15)
• Tom Norris – mixing (tracks 3, 5, 10, 13)
• Bart Shoudel – mixing, vocal engineering (track 12)
• Cirkut – vocal engineering (tracks 1, 8)
• George Daniel – vocal engineering (track 2)
• Jon Shave – vocal engineering (tracks 3, 9)
• Finn Keane – vocal engineering (tracks 3, 11, 14)
• A. G. Cook – vocal engineering (tracks 5, 9, 10, 13–15)
• Hudson Mohawke – vocal engineering (track 13)
• Matt Cahill – mixing assistance (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6–9, 11, 14, 15)
• Tyler Beans – engineering assistance (track 13)