Charli XCX unveils new direction for 7th music album

Charli XCX stepped up with her new performance and new album. She announced her seventh album; in the album Brat, Charli would become a household name. She broke audience records at the taste-making Boiler Room club and live stream.

The video for single 360 assembled a cross-generational council of “It Girls” like Julia Fox, Chloë Sevigny, Gabbriette, Rachel Sennott, Emma Chamberlain, Alex Consani, Hari Nef, Chloe Cherry and Richie Shazam. A deluxe version of Brat with carefully curated remixes, collaborations and features saw the acid-green album achieve critical acclaim.

In this new album Music, Fashion, Film, her gaze extends beyond her own image. Instead, the British artist dissects and discusses the enduring legacy of art and artists, and how creative figures are remembered long after their moment has passed.

Even 2024 US presidential candidate Kamala Harris got on board. Brat cemented Charli’s party girl legacy set in the concrete floors and bathroom doors of nightclubs across the globe. Charlie XCX in an interview with triple j Breakfast’s Abby and Tyrone.

“I think when I started I never really had the intention of kind of like ‘I’m gonna make eight records’.I had a real passion for making music, but I wasn’t having the foresight of a long career.”

In the afterglow of Brat, Charli’s work in the film industry blossomed. She produced her own mockumentary-style film, The Moment, and starred in indie films like Erupcja and 100 Nights of Hero. Her collaboration with John Cale of The Velvet Underground on gothic industrial song House was the lead single for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, helping set the tone for the film. It also established that Charli knows game when it comes to art and its creators.

It laid the foundations for her next body of work. The visual world of her new album Music, Fashion, Film was introduced with the black-and-white film clip for Rock Music, a stark difference to the high-saturation visuals of Charli’s previous work.

She wanted the focus on the art form, without the distractions of bright lights and rich colours, and made the intentional move to be more offline while producing the album. She also noted, “I think historically, I’ve been a very online artist”. “So, I think when I say this, I understand that some people don’t believe me, but I have this year been trying to take a bit more of a step off the internet.

“That doesn’t always work, you know? Sometimes I am still googling myself. This year I have been a lot more offline than in previous times, and that’s really nice and good for anyone.

“I want to do things that fulfil me as an artist and a person. And I think sometimes it’s hard to follow that inner voice. There are a lot of distractions around.”

The 33-year-old star has been inescapable for the past few years. After a lauded performance at the 2023 Coachella Festival, she then dabbled in composing for films, including Bottoms, Bodies Bodies Bodies, and Barbie.