Charli xcx – Music, Fashion, Film

Two years and three prime ministers ago, Brat turned Charli xcx from a top-end cult figure to one of the most famous people on earth, cementing itself as one of the era’s defining records. In the intervening years she’s shifted towards film, but Music, Fashion, Film marks a return to the standalone album with a new frazzled guitar-led sound.

The record strips the usually sprawling cast of contributors back to a core trio of Charli, A. G. Cook and Finn Keane, a lineup that makes for inevitable moments of real magic, primarily on the singles, with Camera juddering its way into a glorious digital warmth, and Wink Wink’s careening chorus making full use of her new sonic palette. There’s a fair chunk of the record though, the likes of Persona and 2007, which feel lacking in definition, and alongside the sometimes revealing, sometimes facile lyrical concerns, the overall feeling is of a record that comes to life in fits and starts.

Coupled with its brief runtime, this changeable hit-rate makes it feel like a higher profile version of the mixtapes of experimentation she was putting out in the mid-2010s; as much an aesthetic exercise to try out a new sound as something that feels fully-formed in the way her albums usually do. The record is ultimately a step down in quality, but perhaps a necessary misstep, the kind of boldly missed swing you only get from a proper pop star.

Listen to: Camera, SS26, Wink Wink