CHAOS IN CLUBLAND

Charlie XCX slips vulnerability into disorienting bangers on 'Brat', writes Helen Brown, while 'Born in the Wild' by Tems is as assured a debut as any Roisin O'Connor has listened to

- Helen Brown

"I'm famous, but not quite," says Charli XCX on her 10th album. The admission is as bold, blunt, challenging and vulnerable as the album on which it appears. Brat is a hedonistic, ultraviolet collection of songs whose thumping - slightly disorienting - club beats more than succeed in their aim of “capturing a feeling of chaos”. Over thudding bass lines, you can imagine glasses of vodka and coke shuddering on the bar – imagine Jurassic Park, but the T rex is a subwoofer.

Across the album, the artist born Charlotte Aitchison blurts out the contradictions of relishing her cool status as a “cult classic” while still fretting over her weight and whether she “deserves commercial success” – all the while, sharply aware that it means little in the grand scheme of things.