Charli XCX makes a subtle pivot from the electronic Brat era to something equally disruptive, using guitars and rock textures on her new album Music, Fashion, Film.
Rock Influences and Sound
The Velvet Underground and The Strokes are influences, but in Charli's hands it sounds more like Elastica as she chops and filters guitars with camera flashes.
Art World Pillars
The three titular pillars of the art world shape Charli's creative life – fashion particularly on SS26 where "we're walkin' on a runway that goes straight to hell".
Martin Scorsese doesn't just feature on the artwork; the spirit of his rhythmic editing methods are mirrored in Charli's beats as she playfully recalls being a "pop star in my bedroom like it’s 2007", then threatens to "buy a whole new life" on the grungy Card Declined.
Personal Reflections
New husband George Daniel's ears will be burning when he hears I'm Afraid, where Charli opens up about her anxieties over settling down and how he has helped her overcome them. She sings: "Happiness came in a box. Never meant that much before, till I met someone who knew how to balance who I am....I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'm nothing without him. What if I ruin it? Take the ring."
Along the way she can still sound pretty flippant, amusing and frankly Brat-y, but Charli is ultimately in a deeper self-reflective mode.
Final Track and Tour News
The final song, No One Lasts Forever, features legendary body-horror movie director David Cronenberg who assures her “oblivion is freedom”, and perhaps only then will she find peace as an artist.
Fans will be delighted to know 'live shows are coming'.
DAILY STAR Rating ***
