Track 13 from the Vroom Vroom EP (2016)

Track 15 from The Angry Birds Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)

Tracks 6 and 16 from Number 1 Angel (2017)

Tracks 5 and 10 from Pop 2 (2017)

Tracks 1, 14 and 21 from Crash (2022)

It's been 11 years since Charli XCX released her debut album, and 10 years since she stormed into American pop culture with her hook on Iggy Azalea's chart-topping hit "Fancy." Since then, she's remained on the mainstream radar, but never at the center of the conversation, until this year, when Brat debuted at #3 on the U.S. charts and then became part of the election news cycle when Charli herself tweeted the words "Kamala IS brat." I was going to include my favorite track on the album, "Apple," on this playlist, until it spawned a viral dance on TikTok and entered the Hot 100, so it doesn't really feel like a deep cut anymore. Last week I was on the beach in Delaware, and a group of women near us was blasting to a playlist that included Brat's biggest single, "360," as well as one of my favorite deep cuts, "Talk Talk." It kind of felt like the much discussed "brat summer" finally reached me in that moment. 

Charli getting to this moment is interesting because I think it validates what she's been doing throughout her career, which is to never stop making and releasing music whether or not the industry was clamoring for it. After Sucker established her but didn't quite blow up, she went almost five years between official albums, but stayed really active and started winning over a lot of the people that are her biggest fans today. And really, aside from her taste and prolific output, I just have to root for an attractive brunette with an English accent, because I'm not made of stone. 

Charli's initial attempt at a third album, tentatively titled XCX, was shelved after a few singles failed to connect and a lot more tracks got leaked. But the Vroom Vroom EP, featuring her first collaborations with the Scottish producer Sophie, and the mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 made Charli part of the ascendant hyperpop movement and an emerging critical favorite. All the while, she'd take any chance to be on soundtracks for TV shows and animated movies, and made some top shelf material in a more conventional chart pop mold -- her song for Home was produced by Stargate and her song for The Angry Birds Movie was produced by Greg Kurstin, both pretty excellent. 

"Track 10" from Pop 2 was later reworked into the Charli single "Blame It On Your Love" featuring Lizzo, but I much prefer the original. I was a little skeptical about How I'm Feeling Now being put together very publicly as a 'quarantine album' being recorded and released in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I think it ended up being a pretty good record that became a real snapshot of that weird moment in time more than most of the other quarantine records that trickled out in the following months and years. 

"Crash" was co-written and co-produced by Charli's fiance, George Daniel of The 1975 (as was "Apple"). And I love how much "Crash" sounds like The 1975, I kinda hope they make more music together. I forgot that Charli had a song with Starrah, and didn't realize that Raye was also on "Dreamer" years before her recent chart breakthrough. Starrah's really cool, she grew up in the same part of Delaware as me and went to the same schools -- her first music teacher was my first music teacher, shout out to Mr. Hetfield. 

I put some of the original album covers in the image at the top of this post, but if you look at the playlist on Spotify, you'll notice that Charli updated all her old albums on streaming services to have Brat-style covers with fuzzy plan text on monochromatic backgrounds. Kind of clever but I also kinda hate how it looks besides the original Brat cover.