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Charli XCX scored her second UK number 1 album with Brat, which was released in June to rave reviews
When Charli XCX recorded her sixth album, Brat, she thought her prickly, abrasive dance anthems were “not going to appeal to a lot of people”.
In the end, the record topped the charts and became a cultural phenomenon. It was nominated for seven Grammys, referenced in the US presidential election, turned into a paint swatch, and named “word of the year” by Collins Dictionary.
Now the album has been named the best new release of 2024 in a “poll of polls” compiled by BBC News.
In multiple end of year lists, critics called Brat “brilliant from start to finish” and “pop music for the future”, praising the way its “painfully relatable” lyrics captured Charli’s insecurities, anxieties and obsessions.
In the star’s own words, the record is “chaos and emotional turmoil set to a club soundtrack”.
“The louder you play it, the more honest it gets,” said the Los Angeles Times.
The BBC’s poll is a “super-ranking” compiled from 30 year-end lists published by the world’s most influential music magazines – including the NME, Rolling Stone, Spain’s Mondo Sonoro and France’s Les Inrockuptibles.
Records were assigned points based on their position in each list – with the number one album getting 20 points, the number two album receiving 19 points, and so on.
Brat was the runaway winner with a score of 486 points, nearly twice as many as the number two album, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
In total, the critics named 184 records among their favourites, from the The Cure’s long-awaited comeback, Songs Of A Lost World, to the kaleidoscopic rap of Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal.
Here’s the top 25 in full.
1) Charli XCX – Brat
Atlantic Records
Charli was born Emma Aitchison in Essex, UK, and has been chipping away at the coalface of pop for more than a decade.
At the start of her career, she scored hits with shiny pop anthems such as Fancy, I Love It and Boom Clap – but over the years, her music has become more volatile and aggressive.
Underground anthems like Vroom, Vroom and Track 10 turned her into a cult star but, as she confessed on Brat:
