Review Summary: Charli XCX’s follow up to the highly acclaimed ‘Brat’ is a massive subversion of expectations – and one that’s bound to divide fans.
Charli XCX’s seventh studio album,
Music, Fashion, Film, is one of the boldest, most unexpected left turns that I ever recall seeing a mainstream pop artist attempt. The ambition behind this project is admirable. Many songs explore existentialism, aging, and an artist’s desire to leave a memorable impression on the world. Unfortunately, that ambition isn’t always matched by the execution. In fact, this is one of Charli’s most inconsistent releases to date;
Music, Fashion, Film has some truly excellent tracks, but at the same time is dragged down by a number of questionable creative choices, as well as occasionally dreadful lyricism. What makes the album stand out from Charli’s past work is its use of real instruments, particularly drums and guitars. For the most part, she has ditched the loud, somewhat abrasive club beats that were commonly present on 2024’s
Brat in favor of a stripped back, somewhat subdued sound. The question is: does this unexpected reinvention in sound actually work? Answering this question is a bit more complicated than you’d expect.
When it comes to combining Charli XCX’s signature sound of autotuned vocals and club pop sensibilities with her newfound interest in natural instrumentation, the results are mixed. The album’s opener, aptly named
Rock Music, is an unfortunate example of the experiment gone wrong, due to its uninteresting, artificial-sounding guitar paired with a particularly annoying vocal effect in the song’s chorus. However, on the flip side,
Persona benefits from the low-tuned, distorted guitar featured throughout the song’s runtime. Let me be clear: this is by no means a rock album, nor is it even really rock-adjacent. In many ways, this feels like a typical Charli XCX project that just has different instrumentation from what fans are used to. For example,
2007 and
Yeah could comfortably fit amongst the tracklist of her past albums, mostly due to their high-quality production and infectious beats.
Charli XCX has never been known for poetic, sophisticated lyricism, but her songwriting on
Music, Fashion, Film is wildly inconsistent, and sometimes distractingly bad. The worst example of the album’s clumsy songwriting by far is
Wink Wink, which is easily the most frustrating track on the album. The song features what is likely the catchiest chorus on
Music, Fashion, Film, along with the record’s most infectious and memorable hook (“It’s the truth, and I’ve got to be honest; I’m not a bad girl anymore, I promise”). However, the song has some of the worst, most lazily composed verses I’ve ever heard from a mainstream pop artist, featuring awful lines such as “I used to lick cream off strawberries in the summer, and maybe I fucked your dad…I used to jump on trampolines with no underwear on, and now I basically just wear trousers.” Abysmal lyricism isn’t just limited to
Wink Wink;
Camera has an incredibly unappealing hook (turns out repeating “how it makes me feel” isn’t compelling to the listener), and
Magic Metal Montana, despite having a genuinely loving feel to its overall sound, is dragged down by the incoherent and sloppy lyrics in its verses.
The thing is, Charli has never needed sharp, intelligent lyricism for her albums to succeed; and that’s still mostly the case on
Music, Fashion, Film, even despite my listed complaints. So much of the album is simply a blast to listen to – even if many of its best songs often feel somewhat underbaked due to their short length.
SS26 has a delightfully cutesy chorus,
2007 features chopped up vocal effects that are impressively produced and a pleasure to listen to, and
Card Declined is a surprisingly atmospheric and gloomy track that ends in an incredibly unexpected, yet infectious, manner. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the album’s closer:
No One Lasts Forever (feat. David Cronenberg). The first half of the track is a bouncy, upbeat pop experience, but it transitions into a philosophical, introspective monologue about art from David Cronenberg. You may think his feature is random and out of place, and I wouldn’t entirely fault you for thinking that, but the conclusion of his monologue provides a genuinely uneasy and anxiety-inducing conclusion to the album. Hearing Cronenberg’s repeated words, “they are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever” for the last minute or so, is an admittedly memorable and haunting way to close an album like this – even if I can’t imagine myself ever adding the song to any playlist of mine.
Music, Fashion, Film is far from being perfect, but Charli XCX deserves recognition for delivering something this unique and against the grain compared to what her genre peers are doing. It may be a far cry from
Brat, and I’m sure it’s bound to divide fans and have many haters, but I think
Music, Fashion, Film is an album worth commendation. If anything, Charli should’ve probably taken more time to develop this release – especially considering she just released
Wuthering Heights earlier in the year. With a bit more time and development,
Music, Fashion, Film could’ve been something spectacular; instead it wound up as an impressive, but flawed, listening experience.
3.5 out of 5
