Is Brat really a modern classic?

I’ve been a fan of Charli XCX for a while. I’m not an original True Romance fan, but was solidly with her from Sucker on, and totally love “Doing It”. With each new album that comes out, I’m always a little surprised by the critical reception… most Charli XCX albums (esp. post PC Music and Sophie) sound like Charli albums?

Like I can appreciate the fact that Brat is a rich text– and there are some great tracks on it– but are they really categorically different than what’s come before? Is this going to be an album we look back on in 10 years as an unvarnished classic? To be more concrete, “Von Dutch” has really grown on me, and there are a bunch of good songs on the album, but does “So I” show tonal range that surpasses “Forever”? Since at least How I’m Feeling Now, we’ve known that Charli can craft songs that fuse pop surface and earnest emotion– that’s one of the reasons we all like Charli, frankly.

Much as I like Brat, I have to suspect that part of the critical acclaim is because it provides so much grist for breathless internet speculation and critical commentary. And to the extent that there’s anything wrong with the album, it’s that for every earnest and direct reflection (“I think about it all the time”) there are tracks that seem to be intended as critical catnip (“Girl, so confusing”) in a way that can blunt their emotional impact– even if they do so openly.