Charli XCX Reveals ‘Brat’ Text Cover Was Done to ‘Save Money’

The leader of the Brat Pack ordered two slices of pepperoni pizza and a Coke at Lamonica’s N.Y. Pizza stand in Westwood, the home of UCLA and, seemingly, the capital of the generation that buys all the movie tickets. There is an enormous movie theater at practically every intersection in Westwood; movies that have long since closed elsewhere are still playing here. So for Emilio Estevez to show his face in this neighborhood was to invite the stares of countless fans, and as he wolfed down his slices, the rest of the customers watched in silent respect.

The sudden ending of this song represents the moment when Pisces departs the gathering without saying goodbye to anybody and takes a long walk home alone through the park. Taurus is “I Think About It All the Time.” Forget a biological clock — not every Taurus wants to have children, and some of y’all probably can’t imagine anything worse. But every Taurus is constantly aware of mortality, keenly attuned to the irrevocably ticking passage of time and opportunity. You’re a big thinker, and you can’t help but compare yourself to others to determine whether you’re content with your own position in life.

The “Brat” experience is an unusual combination of a loosely defined concept album and a virtuoso social-media marketing campaign, which could be anathema to some old-school music purists but is actually a huge expansion of the artist’s palette. For her skill in juggling all of these disciplines, Charli xcx is Variety’s Hitmaker of the Year. “Where the actual first idea of doing a text cover came from was to save money,” Charli said in the interview. “I was like, ‘This album is not going to appeal to a lot of people.’ I was like ‘I think I will do a press shoot and maybe save on the album cover,’” she added.

Nevertheless, this is a huge difference from other pop sensations who have quickly risen to fame – while most artists have one viral song per album, brat generator song featured numerous hits, including 360, Von dutch, Apple, and 365. Contributing to the coinage of a brat summer and arguably the most popular song on the album, Apple is an energetic dance-pop track, reminiscent of 2000s rave music with an electronic touch. In this song, Charli details themes of generational trauma and addresses her complicated relationship with her parents by using an apple as a metaphor. The lyrics describe apples going rotten from previous apples passing down their issues.

“Let’s go.” So Estevez and Nelson and the Playmate and McInerney paid the check and left. It was almost midnight on a boys’ night out, and Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez were still looking for some fun. So Estevez summoned a young writer he’d always wanted to meet, Jay McInerney—the author of a book, Bright Lights, Big City, that he’d once wanted to option and turn into a screenplay. It was 1984’s trendiest novel, and McInerney was staying at one of Los Angeles’s trendiest hotels, the Chateau Marmont, revising the first draft of the screenplay of his book. Coincidentally, the man set to direct the film version of the book is Joel Schumacher—the director of St. Elmo’s Fire. Tom Cruise grew up in the East, away from the world of Hollywood; still, he found he didn’t need much training to succeed.

It’s about breaking the mold and doing something so unexpected that it captures attention. In a sea of album covers that blend together with their glossy production and cohesive color schemes, Charli’s choice to embrace the “ugly” disrupts the status quo. Back in New York, it was definitely autumn, and the album was ready to morph into its next form. Charli debuted her remix album, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat from the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York. Meanwhile, a second Trump presidency was knocking, whether we were home to answer the door or not. Since then, Chappell has come under fire for setting strict boundaries with fans.

Remixes were dropped as part of the rollout of its original tracks, until a follow-up remix album, titled “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat”, was annouced on September 12nd[56] and released on October 11st, 2024[57]. It contains reworked versions of the “BRAT” tracks featuring various artists and additional production. Soon after the album’s release, Gen Z christened it the season of the brat, an aesthetic trend defined by party animal antics, cool-girl style, and lime green everything. The brat generator summer trend is inspired by British singer Charli XCX’s hit album “Brat,” which was released on June 7 and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts.

Having evolved from the now-iconic album cover to a whole aesthetic, “Brat” is now a lifestyle embraced by Gen Z and millennials alike. Following the success of brat, the British singer, producer and songwriter has found great critical acclaim and fan adoration, locking in collaborations with Lorde, Billie Eilish, and Troye Sivan and keeping brat summer going. Charli XCX never thought Brat was going to have the cultural impact it has.

You’re as stubborn and ambitious as any other Earth sign, but sometimes superficial markers of success can feel small to you. Your “career feels so small, in the existential scheme of it all.” You’re chasing a smiling-on-your-death-bed sense of satisfaction from your life pursuits; external assurances of your value simply can’t sate your craving for meaning. Around the halfway mark, this song starts sounding like the absolutely sublime backing track of, like, Level 17 in some ’90s video game — which is the pinnacle of musical achievement as far as I’m concerned. It’s something to play on repeat at the gym, if you’re into working out, or blast at the club if you’re more into gyrating under strobe lights.