Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
- Viral hits by Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Tinashe point to a bigger trend in pop music.
- So far, this summer has been dominated by "smooth brain" songs — fun, silly, powered by good vibes.
- This may be a reaction to the recent onslaught of bad news, sparking a greater need for escapism.
This time last year, I woke up every morning and played "The Record" by boygenius from top to bottom.
After that album ended with "Letter to an Old Poet," a song about mourning a toxic relationship and pleading with the moon for a scrap of happiness, I'd usually chase with tracks by Mitski, Noah Kahan, or Ethel Cain, who tend to write somberly about loneliness, depression, and occasionally murder.
Now, in a delightful twist, I wake up every morning and listen to Charli XCX's "Brat" — or, as she puts it, "365 party girl, bumpin' that."
Charli's sixth studio album is a buffet of neon-lit, hyper-pop bangers that careen wildly from giddy boasts about wearing designer clothes and being iconic to stark confessions about body image and feminine envy.
In contrast to Mitski's or Kahan's works, Charli's confessions aren't meant to make you pause and weep. Hers are plainspoken, unpolished, and impulsive, thrown into the ether with abandon and then eclipsed by heavy beats.
Charli's stream-of-consciousness style mirrors a night at the club; ugly emotions bubble up, but when the DJ plays your favorite song, they dissolve just as quickly.
"Brat," along with viral hits like Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" and Tinashe's "Nasty," have ushered in a season of pleasure and levity — what my friends and I have been calling a "smooth brain summer."
The key tenants are simple: Don't overthink, don't overanalyze, and don't kill the vibe.
summer 2023 x summer 2024 pic.twitter.com/sHNUQGguj2
— girlidiot
