Brat Green & Walking Home From the Club
Words: Eerie Rose
We’re currently living in a period of time that will almost certainly be remembered as a cultural moment; there’s a buzzing excitement in the air that smells like the summer nighttime air when you step outside after pre-drinks, hyped up on poorly mixed g&t’s and that reliable girly pop playlist, stumbling onto the bus to the club sometime between 12-1am. There’s the same words on everyone’s lips and the same songs in everyone’s headphones, walking down New Cross road I am certain I can point out more than five people definitely listening to the same thing as me at this very moment.
You guessed it - it’s brat summer, baby.
The latest offering from Charli XCX, ‘brat’ itself debuted at #2 in the charts, and packs a real variety of tracks that take you on quite a surprising sonic journey. Opening with the confident, it-girl bop ‘360’, and the catchy ‘Club Classics’, you might think you’re in for an hour of bouncy floor fillers made for the DJ decks, with catchy lines for short social media videos. You wouldn’t be altogether wrong, the album is studded with hits, however Charli has also included tracks that explore the dichotomy of being a successful female artist, covering both the wild fun of partying and being known, but also the darker side: being pitted against other women in music, having self confidence and body issues, feeling undecided about the possibility of motherhood. It’s incredible marketing campaign and clever staggered drops, coming to a crescendo on release night with Charli herself zooming around from club to club in a slime green car (aka the bratmobile), has catapulted the album and Charli’s brand into the forefront of everyone’s minds. Everyone wants a piece of the cake, even politician Jeremy Corbyn using the record’s iconic cover design as template for his social media election campaign.
Right now everyone is a 365 party girl, turning looks and bumpin’ that into the early hours, the sun rising before the clubs close. The dolls at Superstore have been showing us how to be cunty since day one, but it feels like only now are people really feeling it, the confidence of a snatched look and sharp nails permeating across cultures (even into the straight world). Bimbocore began to really kick things off a summer or so ago, Chrissy Chlapecka instructing us over Tiktok to fight the powers that be by reclaiming the doe-eyed, platinum blonde, pink clad misogynistic image of the brainless bimbo woman as something hot, empowering and intelligent. We’ve been spinning plates with trends in fashion over the last few years, irony and post-irony becoming a playground that allows anyone to dress as ridiculous as they want and it can be perceived as cool social commentary. It’s been genuinely enjoyable losing a sense of clothes being something that dictates aspects of your life - recently, it’s felt as though whatever you wear can be turned into something cunt, if you sell it as such and say so with your full chest. You’re wearing them remember, not the other way around. ‘Brat’ feels like the natural progression of this, moving the conversation into an entire ethos as well as just an aesthetic. Bratcore is certainly a phenomenon we will be able to tangibly see in action, a comfortability in being a little self-centred, in being demanding and asking for too much, taking up space even if we feel nervous at the thought of it. Other than the signature green, I don’t think this era has a set look other than confidence, be it real or manifested - it’s a lifestyle.
Charli XCX’s vulnerability on ‘brat’ really plays into this, presenting us with this imperfect pop star who has a life much more adjacent to us than we may have expected; growing up with stars being so out of reach, it always felt that being similar is just simply unattainable. ‘Brat,’ for me, seems to hint that actually anyone can be part of that world, anyone can be ‘so julia’, an it girl, because if Charli did it and she worries and thinks like you do - what’s stopping you? You’re really only ever a key in a toilet cubicle away from a new friend, or a dance at the club away from a new collaborator - it’s the way the girls network, babe. Your look is a serve if you fucking serve it, bitch. That’s one of the overarching themes of the record for me…you don’t have to be born confident to be a brat, nor feel that way 24/7 for it to still count. Stardom is still within reach even if you don’t have everything completely figured out yet. I wonder if it’s this that makes the record so relevant at this time, with political unrest and the cost of living crisis making the future seem increasingly uncertain. Not knowing what tomorrow looks like makes working hard feel obsolete at times, but there’s a joy in the amnesia of a night out, the momentary forgetting of what is holding you back. Under disco balls and strobe lights, anything is possible.
The playlist for the month. It’s giving the start of summer, excited for what’s new but also nostalgic for the heat of previous years, trying to recreate hazy memories as the morning sun glares through the night bus window on your way home.
A what’s in my bag for June. I’m reading Alison Rumfitt’s hauntingly horrific ‘Tell my I’m Worthless,’ on hot summer trains, I smell like Angela Flander’s No.5 Sandalwood, I keep taking sugar packets from cafes for the possibility of sweet tea before bed at upcoming festivals, and as always have an assortment of entertaining oddities: a mini pack of cards from a christmas cracker, a tiny wooden rabbit and a plastic frog and cockroach.
It’s June, the end rather than the beginning, but I felt it was still appropriate to publish an editor’s letter for the month - it’s Pride after all, and what is more homophobic than expecting queer people to be on time? (I joke, of course). In all seriousness though, this Pride Month has been possibly the most disheartening yet. In a country already riddled with terfs, some now informing politcial parties despite having no political education or reason to do so (almost like getting a known racist to inform policies about immigration, for example), we find that even the already capitalist Pride in London parade is being sponsored by Coca Cola and most likely including a float from Barclays, both targets in the BDS campaign to strategically boycott companies that are bankrolling genocide or supporting the current attack on Palestine. We’ve had reservations about the rainbow capitalism of the annual parade for years now, their involvement with the police and previous associations with Barclays proving they have no real allegiance to the history of Pride as a protest against state violence, but especially now this feels like a serious final straw. It feels sad, to see so many shops hanging out flags and preaching inclusion, while people in Gaza are being bombed, friends of mine are declined healthcare, we still can’t give blood easily if at all, and homophobia is on the rise - just this week, pride flags on the floor were painted over in a hate crime in Forest Gate. My heart is too heavy to feel much in the way of prideful.
There have however been some moments of joy in this half hot, half wet and thundery month. Boycotts on Live Nation festivals have resulted in a removal of Barclaycard sponsorship from multiple events, while SXSW 2025 have announced they will have no further association with the US Army after bands withheld their labour from the 2024 festival as protest. Uprisings are having effect - communities coming together to slash tires of buses trying to perform immigration raids, not going home until the authorities gave up on their deportation mission. I have pride in protest, I have pride seeing direct action happen and work. There is hope for queer liberation in our lifetimes, for both us in the UK and overseas, but it is something we will have to take, and not wait to be given.
With that in mind, I’d like to share some links for you to do some meaningful action this weekend of Pride in London, some things that will bring about more queer joy and freedom than attending a march escorted by the police, sponsored by multi-national corporations that will use us for their diversity campaigns but don’t have any real allegiance to LGBTQIA+ people whatsoever. Please consider donating to some gender affirming surgery fundraisers listed below, and donate to help support those facing hell in Palestine. Every little helps. I hope you find pride this month in the coming together of community for the liberation and uplifting of us all.
Eerie x