The Eras superstar released six last-minute new variants of her new album to pip Charli XCX to the No 1 album and break her own record, but there is only one winner when it comes to making pop fun

Earlier this month, when asked about why her friend and collaborator Taylor Swift is so popular, Lana Del Rey didn’t mince words: “She wants it. She’s told me so many times that she wants it more than anyone,” she told the BBC. “And how amazing – she’s getting exactly what she wants. She’s driven, and I think it’s really paid off.”

To a casual observer, the remark might seem unremarkable, even obvious – but for her nearly 20 years in the music business, Swift has painstakingly made sure onlookers never see her sweat. As she’s broken sales and touring records, Swift has maintained a veneer of unflappable benevolence that obfuscates her admirable business savvy and clear understanding of what her fans, and the music business at large, want. Del Rey was saying the quiet part out loud: Swift’s success may, at its core, come down to her preternatural musical ability, but her maintenance of that success was aided by intense ambition.

In a year of major releases from stars, the British singer has managed to come out on top with Brat: a catchy, internet-consuming album that captures a particular moment

How famous is Charli XCX? Even Charli XCX isn’t sure. “I’m famous but not quite / but I’m perfect for the background” she sings on I might say something stupid, the single slow-ish track off her new album, Brat. She’s not wrong; a good portion of the public knows the British singer, if they know her at all, for a top 10 hit from more than 10 years ago. But to a community of largely women, LGBTQ+ people and music critics, she is the biggest pop star in the world, the one everyone’s obsessed with – a persona Charli has leaned into with uncompromising, deadpan bravado: “It’s OK to just admit that you’re jealous of me,” she taunts on Von Dutch, the lead single off an album whose meme-generating cover is literally green with envy. On the deliriously catchy 360, she sings: “360, when you’re in the mirror, you’re just looking at me”, which references internet “it girls” such as Julia Fox – “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia.”

And this week, at least online, she’s right. Brat is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year, now one of the top 20 all time on the site Metacritic (score: 95); her sold-out show/rave in Brooklyn this week drew such online fixations as Julia Fox, Lorde, Matty Healy and his new model fiancee Gabbriette, with tickets reselling for $10,000; many have pointed out that fellow pop artists Camila Cabello and Katy Perry are jacking her sound and lo-fi style, evidence of what Vox’s Rebecca Jennings called the “broader XCXification of culture”. A sickly, striking shade of Brat green spread on social media. The 15-track album of nearly straight club bangers, which contains not a single radio nor CVS-friendly track, is slated to debut at No 4 on the Billboard Hot 200 – by far Charli’s most commercially successful album to date, doing similar numbers to the relatively much more streamed (and doctor’s office friendly) Dua Lipa.