Photo from genius.com

BRAT by Charli XCX 

Photo from genius.com 

Undoubtedly, Charli XCX owned the summer with BRAT, a dance-rave collage of party girl magic, club classics, and sentimental soft hitters. For a while, she has been a starlet in the hyperpop scene, and with this glamorously green era, she maximizes her electropop brilliance through new avenues. 

Starting with the killer confidence of 360 and ending with the endlessly bumpin’ 365, BRAT proves that partying and fun never stop in Charli’s world. Glitzy hyperpop hitters like Talk talk, Von dutch, and Apple bring everlasting electricity and ignite infectious fun in audiences. 

However, a track like Everything is romantic defies pop boundaries with lushly orchestral performances spliced with punchy pop beats; not only is it aesthetically enchanting, but it’s enchanting in its storytelling and the images of the  sublime and beautiful that will make you “fall in love again and again.” 

Within the “party-hard” rotation, Charli also included more personal cuts that piece together another side of her. Insecurity and autotuned paranoia slice through Sympathy is a knife, and follow through in I might say something stupid. Meanwhile, the confessional I think about it all the time, finds Charli searching for eternal purpose and whether she could become a mother. Even more upbeat songs like Club classics and Rewind are sprinkled with nostalgia and callbacks to a more “classic” time.  

Yet, the project’s electric spirit never dies, not when Charli has tricks up her sleeve. When she’s not coining phrases like “I’m so Julia” or “Bumpin’ that,” she’s embracing girlhood and relating to the “I’m just a girl” crowd. Girl, so confusing is as blunt as the title suggests, but her detailed insecurities towards another girl feel tastefully real. Even in her confusion, she searches for mutual understanding and empathy. As it turns out, this song was directed towards fellow pop singer Lorde, and soon enough, Charli, knowing, “the internet would go crazy,” released a remix with her! 

Meanwhile, Mean girls exaggerates the “it girl” persona in the classiest way possible. Charli dedicates the track to both mean and “bad girls” alike or antagonized girls who live life on their own terms. Such a fun, devil-may-care track would, of course, not be complete without its piano bridge that sounds like it comes from a role-playing game. 

BRAT braved this summer of already-artful projects from longtime musical juggernauts and became the quotable era of eras. Charli XCX offers the world round-the-clock club raving and fun, and with an era like this, it might be hard to stop “bumpin’ that’” BRAT! 

 HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish launched HIT ME HARD AND SOFT just as the summer bloomed. In this new project, she mixes the majesty of her last two projects in its ten-track run, veering towards avant-garde artistry while still sticking to what she knows best as a saccharine soprano. 

As usual, if Eilish can deliver anything, it’s the snappy radio hits that captivate. She is very much in her element on LUNCH, her most sensual and unapologetically sapphic guitar-hitter. With innuendoes and overtones-a-plenty, she muses over a female partner who might be “the one” and leaves much to the imagination of eating the girl up for lunch. 

BIRDS OF A FEATHER was another monstrous banger among the masses. Feathery, and touchingly upbeat, Eilish embraces everlasting love and what it means to connect with someone romantically. Through her transformative songwriting, she captures this and vows to love her partner “‘til the day that I die” or “‘til the light leaves my eyes.” 

She opts to switch tones and hits hard (no pun intended) with tearjerkers like SKINNY or WILDFLOWER. Eilish wades in pools of insecurities and eating disorders on SKINNY, aching for reassurance and self-acceptance. Compositionally, this melancholic track builds to a wondrous string orchestra outro that truly captures the softness that she was going for. 

Softening the hard hitters, CHIHIRO offers musical mellowness and refreshing reconnections that complement the title being a reference to the Studio Ghibli film, Spirited Away. Eilish’s stellar vocal improvements are also a marvel on this track, and her upper register blends beautifully with the synth-heavy passages. 

She dabbles back into the roots of her debut, like on THE DINER, a strange and chic symphony, or the closer BLUE, a complete retelling of all the album’s themes while finding closure after a breakup and learning to live past it. This album is most definitely a grower. Some tracks may not instantly click on the first listen but with time, they can pierce through superficial layers and reveal touching discoveries. 

Clancy by Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One Pilots returned this year to the trenches of their lore-driven music with Clancy. 

A significant departure from their mixed-bagged Scaled and Icy, this new record explores similar musical terrain as their highly claimed 2018 endeavor, Trench.  

With this era, each single was better than the last; Overcompensate refreshed the era with gritty alternative adrenaline, Next Semester and Backslide developed the story while The Craving shaped a new, hopeful perspective. With Clancy, Twenty One Pilots returns to dishing out their signature brand of cryptic alternative music with hints of pop-rock friendliness. 

In this project, the band puts their musical wits to the test, refining the pop-rock fusions they’ve expanded on over the years. Midwest Indigo reflects on a cold environment and nomadic yearning. Tonally, the song is anything but blue – or indigo; it’s electro-pop/rock at its finest and a homage to the band’s classic sad lyrics/happy sounds. 

Sometimes, the band will throw in an oddball like Lavish that doesn’t fit within the context of the album. Still, its faux, dressed-to-the-nines glamor, lush bells and strings, and lyrical oddities (“Keep the mood androgynous” never fails to confuse me) convey the sham of luxury and opulence, especially in the music industry where gross practices happen behind the scenes. 

Thematically, the band returns to the narratives they build on Trench, from rebelling against depression and addiction to embracing recovery and companionship. Lead singer/lyricist Tyler Joseph reels listeners with gritty deep cuts like Routines in the Night, an insomniac anthem that explores after-hours anguish. The band has done this type of song before, but they’ve polished this theme with concrete imagery of what it’s like to be kept up by your thoughts: walking through a maze of memories, feeling the “days blurring,” and needing company through it all. 

Navigating and At The Risk of Feeling Dumb amplifies needing support through the internal trenches of mental illness, “navigating” unwanting feelings while also being sure to check up on loved ones going through similar battles. 

A callback to the Trench era, Clancy leans heavily into relapse and recovery. The hip-hop-inspired Backslide first hints at relapsing into harmful old habits and going back to a dark era. Vignette, a sharp contrast with its symphonic synths and lively piano chords, furthers the narrative of fighting off an apocalyptic-like addiction.

With a dreamy edge and wistful piano-bell tones, Snap Back beautifully completes the relapse chapter of the album. Joseph sadly croons about having “a bad feeling that I’m about to break,” and losing progress from exhaustive mental battles. Yet, by the end, he still prays for his “elasticity to return to the way that it was,” alluding to greener pastures and the hope of surviving. 

As the project winds down, the band imparts wisdom and maps the road to recovery. Oldies Station seems like your standard motivational anthem, but as soon as the bridge swells, the phrase “When darkness rolls on you, push on through” transforms from cheesy to soul-stirring. Joseph also includes touching details on aging and fatherhood in an “If I can survive, so can you” kind of way.

Paladin Strait conjures a tempest of imagery as Joseph navigates “a hurtling storm” and “angry waves” yet recovers thanks to the endless support of his loved ones, specifically the “Banditos” – the fans. In every sense, this track epitomizes every insightful aspect of Clancy, tying the tracklist perfectly as a fitting return to form.