“It’s a banger.” says Griffin Barbour, a Kempsville 12th grader, after listening to Charli XCX’s “Sympathy is a knife” off of her “Brat” album.
Charli XCX, born as Charlotte Emma Aitchison, is a British singer-songwriter. The now 32 year old has been making music since she was 14, where she was posting her songs on MySpace.
This past summer, Charli’s “Brat” album quickly hit number one on the charts. The term “Brat Summer” was coined and by the looks of it, this holiday season could be a “Brat Autumn” after dropping her newest album at the beginning of this month. “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” is packed full of features from people such as Ariana Grande, Yung Lean, Kesha, Julian Casablancas, and many more.
“Brat Summer” was a trend that originated from Tiktok in the summer of 2024, soon after Charli dropped the album. Fans not only liked the music, they were drawn to the lime green album cover and its minimalistic font. There was also a viral dance created to her song “Apple,” along with the hashtag “#bratsummer.”
Senior Brianna Quiter has heard of Charli before, saying “I knew that she did a couple features back in like 2017, that is when I started listening to her, but just recently I started getting back into her when she dropped her ‘Brat’ album.”
Barbour is a Charli super fan, he saw Charli live in 2022 on her “Crash” tour. He explains that this was one of his favorite concerts he’s ever been to, along with “Crash” being Barbour’s favorite Charli album.
Getting into Charli XCX might be hard as her music is more experimental. Junior Gavin Carpenter, a lover of country and rap has never heard of Charli before.
After playing three songs by her, Carpenter’s conclusion was, “I wouldn’t listen to her.”
He goes on to say, “She sounds like she wants to be Sabrina Carpenter.”
Both Quiter and Barbour, being Charli XCX listeners, took a special liking to the song “party 4 u” off of Charli’s 2020 album “how i’m feeling now.”
“I love it, she just finds a way to make any sort of song catchy,” Quiter adds.
When they listened to one of Charli’s most recent songs, “360 featuring robyn & yung lean,” Barbour and Quiter claimed it was “gas,” while Carpenter asked “Why does she sound like that?”
Kempsville students have some mixed reviews on Charli XCX. While she is a controversial artist with experimental music and sound, she may be worth taking a listen to. In the words of Barbour, “Listen to Charli, 24/7, 365.”
