Charli XCX has released her new album, Music, Fashion, Film, bringing together 11 tracks that move away from the club-focused world of Brat. The record includes ‘Rock Music’ and ‘SS26’, two early singles that introduced a more guitar-led side of her sound.
The album takes its name from a lyric in ‘SS26’, which questions whether music, fashion or film can offer any kind of escape when everything feels unstable. Charli has resisted describing the project as a straightforward rock album, instead presenting the shift as another change in perspective.
Three creative worlds meet on the album cover
Charli XCX extends the title into the artwork, which brings together John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese. The black-and-white photograph was taken by Aidan Zamiri, with each figure representing one of the three creative fields named by the album.
John Cale had already entered Charli’s recent work through ‘House’, their collaboration for the soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. His appearance alongside Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese makes the sleeve feel less like a conventional artist portrait and more like a meeting between three established creative institutions.
Music, Fashion, Film also features filmmaker David Cronenberg on its closing track, ‘No One Lasts Forever’. At nearly six minutes, it stands apart from several of the album’s shorter songs and gives the film side of the project another direct presence.
The album follows the scale and cultural reach of Brat, but Charli has made it clear that repeating that record was never the plan. Rather than returning immediately to another dance-led release, she has used guitars, pared-back production and a more self-aware approach to examine creativity, image and the machinery surrounding pop stardom.
That refusal to repeat herself has shaped much of Charli’s career, and Music, Fashion, Film continues the pattern. Its title may sound blunt, but the project uses those three worlds to ask what remains when image, influence and creative success stop providing easy answers.
