Charli xcx swaps club beats for distorted guitars on 'Music, Fashion, Film', a 30-minute dissection of fame
The 11-track LP, produced with A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, trades hyperpop for fuzzed-out rock and deadpan vocals, drawing mixed but intrigued reviews.
A sharp pivot from Brat
Charli xcx's seventh studio album arrives two years after the culture-shifting Brat, which turned the British musician into a mainstream pop star. The new record, Music, Fashion, Film, deliberately rejects the gleaming electro-pop of its predecessor. Instead, it embraces distorted guitars, simple beats, and often untreated vocals. The first single, "Rock Music," set the tone with its croaking guitar, cymbal smashes, and Charli's deadpan delivery of the line that sparked debate: "I think the dance floor is dead, so now we're making rock music." The track, under two minutes long, left listeners wondering if the entire album would follow suit.
The sound: guitars and deadpan
Across 11 tracks and 30 minutes, Charli and her longtime collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane craft a sound that nods to the Velvet Underground, Wire, and Blur. The opening of "Yeah" recalls the riff of Blur's "Song 2," while the middle of "Card Declined" channels minimalist punk. Charli's vocals are often clean and conversational, a departure from her signature autotune. On "Rock Music," her sarcastic "Wow." is the album's funniest moment, according to Variety. The production layers glitchy digital noise over fuzzed-out guitars, as on the standout "Card Declined," which starts as a dry joke about being defined by one's possessions before blooming into a brief reverie.
Themes of fame and artifice
Where Brat excavated anxieties around female relationships, Music, Fashion, Film turns its gaze to the machinery of stardom. "SS26" toys with the idea of maintaining a bad-girl image when the world is ending, while "Camera" examines the act of performing for the lens. The album's title references Charli's recent forays into acting and fashion, and the cover features a group portrait of John Cale, Marc Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese. In "I'm Afraid," she reveals anxieties about marrying the 1975's drummer, George Daniel, over low, grumbling guitar notes. "Magic Metal Montana" is a platonic love song for Cook, praising his haircut and his ability to read her musical mind.
I think the dance floor is dead, so now we're making rock music.
Critical reception: mixed but intrigued
Reviews have been split. Rolling Stone calls the album "brilliant, catchy, often very funny" and a sharp look at the machinery of fame. The Guardian describes it as a "slippery search into selfhood that hits just as hard as Brat." But the Financial Times deems it a "skimpy follow-up," noting that some tracks feel "bitty" and that the 30-minute runtime leaves little room for development. The AP highlights Charli's role as "one of pop's great contrarians," while Variety praises the "razor-sharp" songwriting and the boldness of the pivot away from club bangers.
The rollout: anti-marketing and rebranding
Charli framed the album's release as an exercise in "anti-marketing," a concept she outlined on X earlier this month. The rollout included club nights, glossy music videos, and profiles, but some fans met her theorizing with sarcasm. The album's visual identity is a deliberate break from Brat's acid green: the title is capitalized, the cover is black and white. In conversation with British Vogue, Charli doubled down on the dance floor being dead, adding, "We know there's gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that's fine."
Truly believe anti marketing will become a thing soon. still marketing but it's just a different approach, more intimate, personal, private, one on one. less about the projection of scale.
