charli xcx has spent the better part of her career making pop music that never quite fit the mold of the mainstream, even as she edged closer and closer to it, until eventually she simply was the mainstream. on music, fashion, film, she sounds far less interested in recreating that moment than picking apart what it costs to survive one. if brat was the sound of becoming a cultural icon in real time, this album is more interested in what happens after the culture stops moving