House (Charli XCX song)

Charli XCX began working on the soundtrack in December 2024 after director Emerald Fennell approached her to compose a song for her film adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.^[1] Inspired by Todd Haynes's 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground, Charli was particularly struck by John Cale's description of the Velvet Underground's sound as needing to be both "elegant and brutal".^[2] "House" has been described as spoken word,^[3][4] neoclassical darkwave,^[3] gothic rock,^[4] and industrial rock.^[5]

After writing the initial version of "House" with producer Finn Keane while on tour in Austin, Charli reached out to Cale to collaborate.^[2] Cale recorded a spoken word poem for the track, which Charli described as "something that only John could do... it made me cry."^[1]

The song is noted for its "noisy and distorted instrumentation",^[5] drawing comparisons to Nine Inch Nails^[5] and featuring lush, gothic orchestral arrangements alongside industrial rock elements.

"House" received acclaim from critics. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called the song "powerful, striking and rewarding", noting it "bore almost no relation in sound or mood to the contents of Brat".^[5] Paolo Ragusa of Consequence described it as "goth rock",^[4] while several critics highlighted its "elegant and brutal" sonic palette.^[2]

Following the release of "House", the song quickly became associated with a trend on TikTok. This trend consisted of users sharing videos of unfortunate, scary or life threatening situations or some combination of the three. The trend, though having no widely agreed name, is commonly searched for as "i think i'm gonna die in this house trend", due to that part of the song playing in the videos.

An accompanying music video, directed by Mitch Ryan, was released alongside the single.^[1]

Credits adapted from official release.^[1]

• Charli XCX – vocals
• John Cale – featured vocals, spoken word
• Finn Keane – production
• Nathan Klein – production