Brat! Taylor Swift re-release denies Charli XCX UK No.1

Charli XCX fans were left furious this week as the British pop singer was denied a second UK Number One album by the release of new UK-only editions of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets’ Department.

Despite Brat being the biggest opening week of any XCX album so far, it was ultimately pipped to the top spot by Swift’s latest release, which claimed its sixth non-consecutive week at Number One to become her longest-running UK Number One album to date.

Charli’s sixth studio album, the critically acclaimed Brat, was given a five-star review by The Guardian, described as “one of the best pop albums of the year” by Pitchfork, and lauded as a “hyperpop roller coaster” by Rolling Stone. It looked set to battle Bon Jovi’s Forever for the top spot, and when Charli released the deluxe version of Brat with three bonus tracks, fans thought it a shoo-in to come out on top, immortalised alongside its predecessor Crash which conquered the album charts in 2022. Charli seemingly had it in the bag…

…But then – disaster.

Despite UK Official Charts stating that Charli was leading the pack on Thursday, with just 1,200 units separating the top three, Taylor’s ‘swift’ moves would sink Brat down to second place

On Thursday afternoon, just mere hours before the 11:59pm end of the chart tracking week, Swift released new UK exclusive editions of The Tortured Poets Department to celebrate the arrival of her Eras Tour in Britain. Featuring live recordings and acoustic versions of songs, the album was restocked on the online UK store including a signed photo card, only available to buy until – you guessed it – 11:59pm that evening! The same time sales of albums would stop being counted towards that week’s official charts.

A surge in sales ensued.

Despite UK Official Charts stating that Charli was leading the pack on Thursday, with just 1,200 units separating the top three, Taylor’s ‘swift’ moves would sink Brat down to second place, with Bon Jovi third, overtaking Midnights as her album with the most weeks at the UK top spot.

It’s safe to say the move didn’t go down well amongst Charli fans, who flooded the Taylor Nation X Post announcing the release with criticism of the Pennsylvania singer, with one reply with over a thousand likes simply reading: “You’re sad.” Another X (Formerly Twitter) post with over 97 thousand likes from user @ctrlpetal goes even further, calling Swift’s release a “snoozefest album” and damning the artist as “the cancer of the music industry”, “fame-hungry”, and “stats-obsessed.”

Indeed, such a move by Taylor doesn’t come without precedent, having recently pulled a similar stunt to keep Billie Eilish’s latest album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, off the top of the Billboard 200 chart by selling three new versions of The Tortured Poets Department. Prompting Eilish to release additional versions of her album, Swift then put out even more re-releases with just a few hours left of the tracking week. The three new versions of her album, each with a new live track from the Eras Tour, were enough to sustain Swift’s position at the height of the charts, with Eilish’s release debuting at No.2.

Rumours of feuds with both Eilish and Charli have also sparked, with both artists speaking out in recent weeks about the cheap tactics used by Swift, amongst others, to sustain chart success

Such moves by Swift have garnered a considerable amount of criticism, with detractors branding her “constant drive for commercial dominance” as greedy, money-hungry, and even anti-feminist in inhibiting other female artists’ success. Many may argue Eilish and XCX have been denied their rightful moment at the top spot, producing interesting, bold new releases which earned significant critical and cultural appraisal, potentially greater than that of The Tortured Poets Department. Both albums hold higher metacritic scores than Swift’s, with Charli’s Brat the highest rated album of the year so far and labelled as having “captured the cultural zeitgeist” for its domination over online culture over the last few weeks.

Rumours of feuds with both Eilish and Charli have also sparked, with both artists speaking out in recent weeks about the cheap tactics used by Swift, amongst others, to sustain chart success. In an interview with Billboard in March, Eilish condemned “wasteful” artists who unsustainably release multiple editions of vinyl albums “just to get you to buy more”, with Swift one of the big names to have faced criticism for their lack of concern for environmental sustainability in recent years. Within the last week, Charli seemed to land a jibe at a sold-out BRAT Tour show in LA, with the singer describing how “artistry shines through” before poignantly singing “Sympathy is a knife”, a song largely thought to be an exploration of her insecurities and complicated relationship with Swift.

Despite not claiming the No.1 spot many agreed Brat deserved, the album still looks set to be Charli’s most critically and commercially successful to date

Whilst Swift’s fans may defend her actions, crediting her desire for success, business acumen, and her own individual draw as an artist which has got her to this point, it’s hard to see how such unflattering moves to keep hold of the top spot on the chart is a net-positive for the industry. Keeping deserving, talented, and inspired young female artists from truly claiming their moment in the musical spotlight reeks of poor-taste and desperation, a scent which clouds Swift’s image as “America’s sweetheart” and shows her to many as an entrepreneurial tactician who seeks something of a monopoly over the pop-music industry.

Despite not claiming the No.1 spot many agreed Brat deserved, the album still looks set to be Charli’s most critically and commercially successful to date, tripling the first-week streams of its predecessor Crash on its opening day of release. Whilst Swift’s Eras Tour enjoys its UK leg, XCX’s BRAT Tour looks forward to selling out arenas of its own across the world over the summer and into the autumn, a huge moment for the British artist who was an opener for Swift at the 2018 Reputation Tour. In a career where Charli has had personal ups and downs with the music industry, struggling to find the balance between commercial appeal and remaining true to her sound, it’s with Brat where she seemingly has struck gold – or rather – green. It is bursting with energy, freshness, and irresistible hyperpop beats which have seduced crowds and critics alike, earning cultural capital which will last far longer than a week or two at the top of the UK charts.