Charli xcx could have had it so easy. Her 2024 album, BRAT, was so massive, so successful, that she could have kept living off of it for a while, making the same sort of music again and again, and people would have kept listening and dancing.
The album spawned “BRAT summer,” a sort of cultural phenomenon inspired by the album and Charli xcx, epitomized by fun, hedonistic and, as Charli xcx said herself, sort of “trashy” aesthetics. BRAT summer became so ubiquitous that it spread into BRAT fall, and even kind of BRAT winter, and even former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris used the aesthetics as part of her presidential campaign. Even though she could have ridden on the coattails of “BRAT” for a long time, it makes sense that the singer would want a departure from it.
So, she made Music, Fashion, Film, which seems like a stark shift from her previous work, both on thematic levels and in many places throughout the album, musically. The album, Charli xcx’s seventh, was released July 24, and stands as another impressive chapter in the singer’s ever-evolving discography.
The album’s first single, “Rock Music,” is a funny, self-referential song in which Charli sings “I think the dance floor is dead,” and now, instead, she has to focus on rock music. It’s a joke, but it’s also not. There’s power chords, there’s heavy distortion, you could argue that the hyperpop artist is actually making rock music, but Charli xcx would laugh at you for even arguing — who cares in the end?
In “Card Declined” the über cool and fashion-forward Charli xcx mocks overconsumption and consumerism culture. She gets extremely nostalgic on “2007,” and speaks to her relationship with collaborator A.G. Cook on one of the album’s highlights, “Magic Metal Montana.”
In the song, Charli sings that the producer, who she has collaborated with for a little more than a decade, is her “best friend” and that they talk through the music that they create together. It’s a really touching and beautiful moment, in an album that’s full of jokes and self-mocking.
Saying that, though, the album is deeply funny. People who are new to Charli xcx might not pick up on the singer’s humor and satire, and might just see it as ridiculous. It sees Charli regularly poking fun at herself, but it’s also introspective, and showcases what the singer’s ambitions for her future are.
Music, Fashion, Film is more than just the album’s title. Of course, they’re all things that Charli xcx has shown she cares deeply for. They’re also things that bring some of the people who do them immense fame—something that this album comments on. It also directly showcases the album title on the cover of Music, Fashion, Film, which features a photo of singer John Cale, who founded The Velvet Underground and worked with Charli xcx on Wuthering Heights, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and the film director Martin Scorsese all together in a room—each are icons in their respective fields, and something that Charli xcx clearly hopes to be seen as one day.
She thinks about these ambitions in the song “Camera,” while singing “Do I wanna make music? Am I being fucking stupid if I try to be a girl on the screen when I’m turning thirty-four?”
While thinking about her aspirations, it also kind of seems like Charli xcx doesn’t sleep. We’re just two years out from BRAT, which seemed to have taken over the whole world, and earlier this year, the singer released Wuthering Heights, a stunning soundtrack to the less than stunning same-named film that is one of my favorite albums of the year.
Over the past few years, she’s also released a remix album for BRAT, and starred in a mockumentary about her experience with the phenomenon of the album.
She could have spent the past two years coasting, or just sleeping, but instead, she’s always creating and expressing her vulnerability while at the top of her game.
How lucky are we?
Music, Fashion, Film is available on all streaming platforms, and Charli xcx will be touring throughout the United States for much of the rest of the year.
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