Charli XCX has released her seventh studio album, "Music, Fashion, Film," and it sounds little like anything she has made before.
According to Rolling Stone, the album contains 10 succinct songs and a longer closing track, all written and produced with her frequent collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane. Variety reported that the 11 songs run just under 30 minutes, with no guest appearances except for what the outlet described as "an unsettling monologue from iconic filmmaker David Cronenberg at the album's end."
The biggest departure from her 2024 breakthrough "Brat" is the instrumentation. Where "Brat" built its reputation on gleaming, club-ready electropop, "Music, Fashion, Film" is built on heavily distorted guitars, simple beats, and what Variety called "staticky electronic embellishments." Charli also largely abandons the autotune she has used throughout her career, delivering many of the tracks in a clean, often untreated voice. Variety noted that the opening of one track recalls the riff from Blur's "Song 2," while another section sounds like the minimalist punk group Wire.
Rolling Stone described the album's lyrical focus as the machinery of stardom itself. The track "SS26" toys with the idea of maintaining a bad-girl image in a world where everything is bad. "Card Declined" begins as a song about being defined by possessions before shifting into what Rolling Stone called a "brief reverie" and closing with a stretch of indie pop. On "I'm Afraid," which Rolling Stone described as bristling like an outtake from Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, Charli addresses her anxieties about marrying the 1975's drummer, George Daniel. "Magic Metal Montana" is directed at Cook himself, with Charli praising his haircut, his dancing, and his ability to understand her musical instincts.
The album arrives as Charli has maintained a relentless pace of public activity. Variety noted that she has appeared in four films this year beyond her mock-documentary "The Moment," in addition to videos, tour announcements, and album-listening sessions held in independent movie theaters.
Rolling Stone credited "Brat," released in 2024, with transforming Charli's profile from critical favorite to mainstream pop star. "Music, Fashion, Film" marks her first full studio statement since that shift.
