Music, Fashion, Film

After receiving universal critical acclaim for her sixth studio album Brat (2024),^[4] the British singer and songwriter Charli XCX saw her project spawning a viral Internet trend for its lime-green cover art and aesthetic dubbed as Brat summer.^[5] Continuing this cultural phenomenon, she co-headlined the Sweat tour with Australian singer Troye Sivan and released her first remixed album on 11 October 2024 which featured various artists.^[6]

Charli soon struggled with exhaustion and a lack of creative inspiration that made her feel like she "wouldn't be able to make music anymore".^[7] She was then asked by director Emerald Fennell, in December 2024, to record a song for her 2026 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights (1847). Charli "immediately felt inspired" after reading the screenplay and worked on several tracks throughout 2025,^[8] with frequent collaborator Finn Keane.^[9] Described as a "world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, [and] British,"^[10] she noted this "collection of songs is an album" and wondered if it fit into her discography, but ultimately decided that it did not matter.^[11]

Brat and its songs were later nominated for nine Grammy Awards at its 67th annual ceremony, with Charli winning the three of them, including Best Dance/Electronic Album.^[12] She then sent Scottish filmmaker Aidan Zamiri a message about her Brat success and headspace, which he read to Vanity Fair: "This feeling of having just almost got everything [she] could have wanted, and what that felt like on kind of a human level."^[13] It served as the basis for the film titled The Moment, with Charli in the lead role and directed by Zamiri;^[14] it premiered at multiple festivals.^[a] When releasing her second soundtrack album on 13 February 2026, she revealed to American influencer Quenlin Blackwell about potentially quitting music and embrace into acting, hinting at another project.^[17]

Two months later, American singer Sky Ferreira accused Charli of the usage of her old songs in the soundtrack and without credit.^[18] Charli's management responded to Ferreira's claims on 6 April, stating, "All relevant parties were consulted [while] songwriting credits and splits were determined and agreed collectively in writing, with reference to documented timelines and contributions."^[19] In the same press release, they added that Charli was filming in Kyoto, Japan, at the time for an untitled Takashi Miike film,^[20] and she was wrapping up her upcoming studio album.^[21] She then uploaded a black and white image of herself wearing headphones to Instagram on 15 April, with the caption stating, "I love making things." Confirmed to be music-related by Charli herself, she spent ten days at Rue Boyer Studios,^[22] in 2025 in Paris, France, with record producers A. G. Cook and Finn Keane.^[23]

Music, Fashion, Film has been described as a pop album featuring guitars influenced by "Daft Punk-inspired" electronic rock.^[24] Beginning with "Rock Music" as the lead single, it incorporates prominent distorted guitar instrumentation and Auto-Tune sounds,^[25] while maintaining the pop-oriented style characteristic of Charli's work.^[26] Its lyrics continue her conversational and provocative approach, including references to nightlife, friendship, and self-aware humour.^[27] The next track, "SS26" was mainly inspired by the rock music genre, opening with light guitar lines and subdued electronic drum sounds before shifting into a more distorted sound,^[28] with a subtle dance element.^[29] It also references online backlash and cancel culture through lines such as "I was hacked, it got taken out of context, obviously".^[30] "Camera" has elements of rock through this electronic track where it explores the vulnerability of stardom.^[31] Lyrically, it tones down towards a confession by Charli surrounded by glitchy guitar synths which embraces her true-self.^[32]

"Wink Wink" is a pop-rock song driven by a mid-tempo beat, clangy guitar riffs and searing synthesiser lines.^[33] It is opened with a spoken-word catalogue of provocative behaviour while adopting a tongue-in-cheek tone,^[34] with Charli claiming she is "not a bad girl anymore", a statement immediately undermined by the closing "wink, wink".^[35]

"Magic Metal Montana" appeared with an "unexpected tempo" in production where Charli straightforwardly wrote this post-rock track as a platonic love letter to her close friend and producer Cook.^[36] This penultimate song details their work relationship with the line "We make music, we talk that way", as well as smaller details about his taste with "You like old things, magic, metal and Montana".^[37]

Charli uploaded a teaser video on 7 May 2026, showcasing an electric guitar being crushed by a stiletto heel.^[39] This was confirmed to be her lead single titled "Rock Music",^[40] and was released the next day alongside a music video directed by Zamiri.^[41] A black seven-inch vinyl was then produced on 9 May, that exclusively included a B-side track called "I Keep On Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night" with its respective video only being shared through Instagram,^[42] on her alternative account.^[43] Charli soon began teasing lyrics on a Substack post, which led to her second single release of "SS26" on 21 May.^[44] Its music video was shown the same day, directed by Torso, depicting a fashion runway show in Paris with Charli presenting a series of designer looks.^[45] Two days later, she dropped another B-side song titled "Playboy Bunny", with a limited vinyl and video release.^[46] She explained her reasoning about the subsequent B-side releases, stating, "They're paired together, these two songs, are because, in ways, they're totally opposite from each other, and that is [k]ind of the main point of them."^[47] The singer also added "[the songs] are never gonna go on streaming", but may potentially change in the near future.^[48] Nevertheless, "I Keep On Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night" was interpolated in the outro of "Card Declined" on the album itself.^[49]

Music, Fashion, Film was announced as Charli's eighth studio album on 1 June 2026, and released on 24 July.^[50] The record contains eleven tracks with a total runtime of 30 minutes and 5 seconds. Its greyscale cover artwork, photographed by Zamiri,^[51] features Welsh singer John Cale, American fashion designer Marc Jacobs and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, whom Nick Reilly for Rolling Stone UK described as "three cultural greats representing each aspect" of music, fashion, and film.^[52] All three men were present for the photoshoot, which took place in a "random kitchen" at Charli's request.^[38] An expanded edition of the album subtitled B-Sides Edition containing all three B-sides was released for purchase exclusively on the iTunes Store on 26 July.^[53]

A week later, Charli revealed her fifth solo concert tour on 8 June 2026, beginning with four festival performances (Lollapalooza on 31 July; Outside Lands on 7 August; and Reading and Leeds Festivals on 28 and 29 August, respectively). The tour is planned to consist of an additional fourteen concerts across the United States and Canada from 11 September to 23 October, all with American singer Underscores as the supporting act.^[54] Further dates in the United Kingdom are planned.^[55]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.0/10[56]
Metacritic	82/100[57]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[58]
Consequence	A-[59]
The Daily Telegraph	[60]
DIY	[61]
The Guardian	[62]
The Independent	[63]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[64]
Pitchfork	8.2/10[65]
Rolling Stone	[49]
The Skinny	[66]

Close

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Music, Fashion, Film received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 from twenty-six critic scores.^[57] The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? compiled twenty-eight reviews and gave the album a weighted average score of 8.0 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.^[56]

Writing for The Guardian, Laura Snapes labelled the album, following Brat, "another gorgeously astute and disarmingly deep album about the instability of identity – not just as a vanguard songwriter striving for evolution, but how much we can ever know one another, or even ourselves".^[62] Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone called it a "brilliant, catchy, often very funny look at the machinery of fame".^[49] Ben Tipple of DIY described Music, Fashion, Film as a "sister album" to Brat, calling it a "candid, introspective triumph" that offers an "autobiographical snapshot of Charli as she is now".^[61] Writing for AllMusic, Heather Phares hailed the album as being "inquisitive and invigorated", writing that Charli XCX's feelings "run just as deep" as they did on Brat. Phares described the album's "raw and spontaneous" impressions as resulting in some of Charli's "most daring and thought-provoking music".^[58] Anna Gaca of Pitchfork described the album as being "intentionally, imperfectly human", and "full of little somatic thrills—doubled vocal harmonies, sharp dynamic contrasts". Gaca wrote that the album resembles the quasi-vérité style of How I'm Feeling Now, and acknowledges the "identity hazard of being the pop star".^[65]

Michael Hoffman of The Line of Best Fit dubbed Music, Fashion, Film "Charli xcx’s most fully realised statement as an artist", where the singer is "proving herself to herself". Hoffman suggested that the track "Camera" serves as a thesis for the album, displaying "the willingness to be a beginner again, to suck a little, to let the camera expose rather than soften, but ultimately using the camera to escape her persona as Charli xcx".^[64] Conversely, Paolo Ragusa of Consequence suggested that the track "Persona" serves as the album's "thematic crux", where Charli "confronts her pop star persona directly", describing it as a "particularly poignant offering that puts Charli’s inner war in perspective". Ragusa wrote that the album is "maybe [Charli XCX's] most honest one", which is the sound of the singer "trying to figure it out while the tape still rolls".^[59]

In less favourable reviews, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent found the album's sound and themes "confusing and often contradictory", suggesting some of the lyrics exploring insecurity felt "like a hangover from Brat",^[63] while Poppie Platt of The Daily Telegraph described the lyrics as "cringeworthy, surface-level platitudes" and the production as "distorted synths drown[ing] out any semblance of emotional clarity".^[60] In a review for The Skinny, Joe Creely felt that Music, Fashion, Film's moments of "pure magic" are primarily limited to its singles, while criticising the tracks "Persona" and "2007" as "lacking in definition". Creely wrote that the album "comes to life in fits and starts", and suggested that it is a "higher profile version of the mixtapes of experimentation" that the singer was putting out "in the mid-2010s".^[66]

In the United Kingdom, Music, Fashion, Film debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Charli XCX's fourth number-one album in the country. It opened with 22,322 album-equivalent units, consisting of 15,050 physical copies, 1,762 digital downloads, and 5,510 sales-equivalent streams.^[67] She became the first British female artist to chart two number-one albums in the same year, previously topping the chart with Wuthering Heights (2026) in February.^[68] The album also topped the UK Vinyl Albums Chart.^[68] In Australia, the album charted at number one on the ARIA Top 50 Albums chart, while also topping the vinyl albums chart.^[69]

In the United States, Music, Fashion, Film debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, with 78,000 album-equivalent units earned in its first week, becoming her fourth top-ten album in the country. Of that total, 57,000 were pure album sales, while 21,000 were streaming-equivalent units.^[70] Charli XCX became the only woman to have at least two debuts in the top ten of the Billboard 200 in 2026, following Wuthering Heights which debuted and peaked at number eight in February.^[70]

The credits are adapted from Tidal.^[72]

• Charli XCX – vocals, executive production
• A. G. Cook – production, mixing, executive production
• Finn Keane – production, mixing, executive production
• Ruairi O'Flaherty – mastering
• David Cronenberg – featured vocals on "No One Lasts Forever"