Charli xcx's 20 Greatest Songs
"With pumping synths and pulsing bass, it introduced us to the unapologetic 360 party girl we would come to know better."
The rise of Charlotte Aitchison, better known as Charli xcx, has been nothing short of iconic, within the pop music landscape and beyond. A decade in the industry as a producer, DJ and singer-songwriter, few have straddled both mainstream and underground success like Charli, a true experimentalist as much as a pop hitmaker.
For the fans that have been there since the MySpace days, Charli broke through long before her sixth album release in 2024, but it is indisputable that the release of BRAT marked a meteoric new chapter for the artist. A masterclass in marketing, the arrival of Charli's fully-realised xcx persona, cementing her status as one of pop's main characters for many years to come.
READ NOW: A Rough Guide To: Brat Summer
365 party days later from its official release, we not only celebrate one year of BRAT but also rise to the occasion to celebrate Charli's wider catalogue, with 2025 also marking five years of the phenomenal how i'm feeling now, her fourth studio album. Leading the proceedings is Rough Trade West's Celeste Madden, a longtime 'Charli's Angel', who's been following the pop queen's wild ride from the very beginning.
"Charli xcx’s BRAT (now a year old!) has left an indelible lime green mark on pop music, but her impact on everything from soundtracks to hyperpop runs much deeper. In our hearts, it’s BRAT Summer all year round."
Boom Clap
(SUCKER)
The year was 2014: we were drawing moustaches on our fingers, Tumblr dictated our taste in everything and Charli xcx cemented herself in pop royalty with a joyous, infectious chorus that was destined for summer playlists forevermore.
!Franchesckaar!
(14)
While technically unreleased (apart from by avid fans on SoundCloud), Charli’s first release is perhaps her at her most unrestrained - with twinges of Lily Allen, !Franchesckaar! foresaw a promising future in experimental pop.
Boys
(Stand-alone single)
A lot of my love for Boys stems from how much it encapsulates that era of pop - something Charli is very adept at. The lyrics are pretty standard pop fare (starting to get the feeling she was busy thinking about boys?), but that’s no detraction. If anything, it’s all the more enjoyable, the perfect sing-along tune. As always, Charli knows how to market her art: the music video was the moment, featuring 75 famous ‘boys’, including Kaytranada, Ezra Koenig, Brendon Urie and will.i.am.
White Roses
(Number 1 Angel)
Made from ‘start to finish in a single week in January’, according to A.G.Cook, White Roses might be thematically connected to 2013’s Black Roses, even if it’s just that they’re the opposite ends of the spectrum of a relationship. The drawn-out single notes are simple but beautifully moody.
Break the Rules
The little sister of Von Dutch, the Dawn to Buffy, the iPod Nano to the iPod Touch. Break the Rules conveyed a pop-punkier, more rebellious side to Charli xcx. With pumping synths and pulsing bass, it introduced us to the unapologetic 360 party girl we would come to know better.
I Got It (ft. Brooke Candy, Cupcakke)
(Pop 2)
Charli’s versatility and openness to collaboration is part and parcel of her greatness, and I Got It is no different. Cupcakke’s notoriously lewd writing style blends seamlessly with Charli and Brooke’s upfront lyrics. Perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth and a cheeky side.
1999 (ft. Troye Sivan)
(Charli)
The first of a series of excellent collaborations with Troye, 1999, embraces nostalgia backed by a crunches of buzzy synth, sounding every bit Matrix-y as the homage cover art suggests; the little piano motif in the background are similar to ‘mean girls’, and every bit as catchy. It was so good that they released a sequel the next year, titled 2099.
Crash
(Crash)
Charli xcx always knows how to open an album, and this one from the record of the same name is no different. It’s pretty dark in tone (‘I’m about to crash into the water/Gonna take you with me) which really contrasts with the 80s-inspired soundscape the dream team of Charli, A.G. and George Daniel have created here.
Speed Drive
(Barbie The Album)
I listened to this song 55 times in 2023 alone - everything about it, from the interpolation of Toni Basil’s Mickey to that incredible beeping synth in the intro is just hyperpop perfection. My only criticism is that it should be three minutes longer.
Backseat (ft. Carly Rae Jepsen)
The perfect, cinematic opener for an album like Pop 2 - could a song sound any more like racing down an empty highway at midnight? Coming in hot after Carly Rae Jepsen’s gorgeous Emotion, Charli and Carly’s (say that ten times fast) collaboration seems made in a heaven populated by synths. The ending refrain of ‘All alone’, over and over, lifts me up and crushes me every time.
Next Level Charli
(Charli)
The intro on this is amazing - it twinkles like the start of an 80s pop ballad, but once Charli’s dubbed vocals kick in it massively sets the tone for her eponymous album. The auto-tuned vocal runs at the end remind me a lot of Caroline Polachek’s So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings and I love how much of a homage it is to Charli’s friends and her own work.
Von Dutch
This is a track that tells you what’s going to happen from the start. The revving sound that powers through Von Dutch is reminiscent of Vroom Vroom, and I love how daring every aspect of the song is. The lyrics are some of Charli’s most scathing - ‘I get money, you get mad because the bank shut’ - and Finn Keane’s punchy production cement it as an evolution of the diss track - an empowerment anthem, but at someone else’s expense.
Talk Talk
(BRAT)
Detailing her shy courtship with now-fiance and The 1975 drummer George Daniel, Talk Talk is the ultimate springy, not-quite bubblegum pop track and tonic to ‘I might say something stupid’, and also sets a precedent for the more confessional, narrative-based lyricism that defines ‘brat’. It’s the perfect representation of a crush - a stream of consciousness culminating in a happily ever after.
Sympathy is a Knife
(BRAT)
To be on r/popheads the day this dropped, among all the debate and confusion as to who it was about. Except that’s a ploy to distract you! However much attention this song generated, it massively detracted from Charli’s actual message about how the music industry pits female artists against one another, leading to (unwarranted!) feelings of inadequacy. Sympathy is one of the album’s most vulnerable moments, and the searing production feels as though it’s severing your heart too.
Club Classics
Right now! Right now! Right now! Club Classics is Charli’s love letter to her friends in music and their never-ending nights out. The moment I heard this song was the moment I got ‘brat’. Frequent collaborator A.G. Cook’s (who is named in the song, meta) production is thick and gelatinous, and always reminds me a bit of when people put oobleck on speakers. There’s also an interview somewhere where Charli discusses the moment they realised her vocals were slightly detuned, but it worked, and so they kept it in - creating that amazing dissonant feel.
anthems
(how i'm feeling now)
I love a deceptive banger, and this one’s no different. Charli manages to balance the monotony of lockdown with her need to be around her loved ones in a way many of us could relate to - it’s a song I come back to when I need a reminder that there are things to look forward to.
party 4 u
(how i'm feeling now)
party 4 u went unexpectedly viral recently, and it’s no wonder why. The song is a time bomb in itself: Charli’s frustrations grow throughout, with her elaborate party plans reflecting that desperate sense of unreciprocated longing. The outro is stunning (and soundtracked the climactic kiss in 2023’s Bottoms), with Charli’s acapella harmonies creating a moving, Imogen Heap-esque choir as we realise that they aren’t coming to the party.
Vroom Vroom
(Vroom Vroom EP)
The activation phrase for thousands of sleeper Angels: ‘let’s ride’. I feel as if Vroom Vroom laid the groundwork for the likes of Von Dutch to ride into the sunset. The SOPHIE-produced drums are in halftime, wide and bassy, making the refrain all the more hard-hitting when it really (sorry) revs up and that strange yelping sound kicks in.
claws
Every Angel can tell you where they were when Charli revealed this on an Instagram live, where it was met with…mixed reactions. claws is Charli at her finest - with lyrics that wouldn’t be far removed from a skipping rhyme, playfully referring to her thighs being ‘juicy just like clementines’, it veers from teasing to earnest in the kick of an 808. Her refrain of ‘I like everything about you’ sums up the heart-on-your-sleeve beauty of ‘how im feeling now’: sometimes there’s no other way to put it.
Track 10
I feel almost incapable of talking about how much I love Track 10. The delicate, arpeggiated twinkles on the intro sort of lure you into a sense of false security, before - as many Charli songs do - sucker punching you with the chorus, a harsh dose of the reality of many doomed relationships: ‘I blame it on your love’. Charli’s vocals soar across the song, and the moments where it’s just her voice and the synths before the big crescendo are just magical, especially after the little lull of the false ending. A more danceable version of the song featuring Lizzo, Blame It On Your Love, would later feature on 2019’s Charli, but this is the version to end all versions for me.
Honourable Mentions
Yes No Ok from Bottoms, Hot Girl (Bodies Bodies Bodies) from Bodies Bodies Bodies, New Shapes ft. Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens’ from Crash.