Charli xcx’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a Cinematic, Expansive Follow-up to ‘brat’

In a year long, long ago Emily Brontë published “Wuthering Heights” under the alias, Ellis Bell. On February 13th, Charli xcx dropped her album accompaniment to Emerald Fennel’s reimagining of Wuthering Heights, starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. While the adaptation had preceding attachments established before Charli signed on to produce the soundtrack/album, it’s a clear representation of her own artistic identity.

Anyone anticipating the release of this album would be familiar with its lead single, “House,” featuring John Cale of The Velvet Underground, which has also taken on a life of its own by becoming a meme on TikTok. “House” serves as the album’s thesis, as Charli has stated in interviews that she was inspired by Todd Haynes’ 2021 documentary on The Velvet Underground, where Cale recants that the bands’ songs needed to be “elegant and brutal.” She then applied this same guiding principle to the film’s soundtrack. 

Each song is more haunting and gorgeous than the next. The presence of orchestral instrumentals really elevates each track to carefully place it in a gothic, cinematic world. Take the second track, “Wall of Sound,” as an example. Without the familiar elements of auto-tune, which are common traits of a Charli song, the ballad still disarms its listener while building to a crescendo of strings, then submerging its listener in the full strength of the sound: very similar to the legendary romance between Heathcliff and Catherine. 

My favorite song on the album, “Dying 4 You,” comes directly after “Wall of Sound.” It is perhaps the one that most perfectly demonstrates Charli’s penchant of matching varying themes with her own skillset. On “Dying 4 You,” she adeptly harnesses the feeling for yearning a person you haven’t yet met with a symphonic melody and a class four on the floor dance rhythm. 

This soundtrack, album, whatever you really want to call it, is the perfectly follow up to brat, which was maximalist, brash, electronic, and dance-heavy. On Wuthering Heights, Charli remains faithful to the dance genre, while honoring the themes of the classic “Wuthering Heights” love story. On Wuthering Heights, Charli xcx proves that yearning, romance, and dance are timeless endeavors.

Wuthering Heights is out now.

Words by Ilana Rubin for Staged Haze