In lime green, Charli XCX delivers the best album of the year.

Cover photo: Album cover for Brat by Charli XCX, designed by Special Offer, Inc. (2024). Via Wikimedia (cropped).

Intro

British hyperpop singer-songwriter Charli XCX (Charlotte Emma Aitchison) released her sixth studio album Brat on June 7th. In a year crowded with releases by major pop stars — Ariana Grande (Eternal Sunshine), Beyoncé (Cowboy Carter), Taylor Swift (The Tortured Poets Department), Dua Lipa (Radical Optimism), and Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft) — Brat has debuted as the best album of 2024 according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Despite mainstream success with hits Fancy, Boom Clap, and Speed Drive, Charli has maintained her underground cult status. “This album is going to be confrontational,” she promises. “I want to provoke people.”

Brat is an homage to the East London raves of the 2000s — where Charli has played DJ since the young age of 14, accompanied by her parents. Now 31 years old, and recently engaged, Charlie reexamines brat life through hedonism, embarrassment, yearning, and existential dread.

Lime Green

All these emotions are filtered through a lime green lens, covering the album like “toxic-sludge” as designed by New York City-based studio Special Offer, Inc. It’s calculated and effortless, ironic and sincere — featuring only the word “brat” rendered in black lowercase Arial Narrow font, pixelated and fuzzy, out-of-focus like impaired vision from partying all night. Upon reveal, one fan bemoaned, “this better not be the final album cover.”

Charli argues, “I’m trying to make you look at yourself and wonder why it bothers you so much that my face isn’t on the cover? … What does that say about what you expect from your artists? What does that say about me as an artist? Does it make me stupid to do that? Does it make me brave to do that? Does it make me lazy to do that?”

“It’s a fine art conversation really,” Charli insists — in fact, “Brat green” evokes some of the most memorable works in art history. Launched with a personalized website called Brat Generator, “the album art is pure meme-bait,” says Dazed features editor Günseli Yalcinkaya.

Armor

“I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong,” Charli explains. According to Google Trends, searches for “lime green” (also called “yellow green”) have doubled in popularity since the 2000s. The tart color is youthful and energetic, but it’s also anxious and loud — like a bratty tantrum.

“It’s about this sort of behaviour that everybody adopts on the internet … unabashed, shameless, Me-centric,” says Charli. “Brattiness is a cloak. You’re only a brat if you’re acting out against something that’s made you feel a little bit insecure.”

Brat is Charli is at her most vulnerable, considering the world outside herself. She grieves for a lost friend, considers motherhood, examines generational trauma, questions suicide, and the success of her career. It’s raw and cathartic, made possible by the armor of her “it-girl” status.

Final Thoughts

Brat is a masterfully crafted album. It’s poetic, emotional, and fun. From 360 to 365, Charli keeps me enthralled with every beat. I feel a sense of synesthesia as she evokes neon lights, text bubbles, emotions of jealousy, and apples rotten to the core. It’s brilliant and I will be streaming Brat all summer.

Special Offer, Inc. did not respond to my request for comment.