Day 374: Charli xcx – Music, Fashion, Film
It’s day four of me being ill and I’m just not taking it particularly well. My brain has gone to mush to an extent where if someone asked me what’s 4 + 7, I’d probably have to google it – I’m not even badly sick, but I’ve just got nothing left in the tank. Because of this, I thought I’d go for an album that’s not too difficult to listen to but also probably good, so I thought I’d try the new Charli xcx.
Album cover courtesy of Atlantic
After releasing the era-defining 2023 album BRAT and her subsequent tour, Charli xcx says she was feeling burnt out and depleted, saying that she “had this feeling that I wouldn’t be able to make music anymore.” She’d been nominated for nine Grammy’s and even the most conservative evaluation could probably come to the conclusion that BRAT was the biggest phenomenon of the era, but she says she wasn’t sure where she should go next.
She then got inspired by the soundtrack that she did for Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights and the acting roles she’d taken, so she decided to cut her musical hiatus short and start recording her seventh album, Music, Fashion, Film. It was recorded in Paris with her longtime collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, and it received pretty much universal critical acclaim.
It’s an interesting album. Charli xcx does seem to really capture something about the current cultural landscape, both in what she says and how she says it – she’s delivering these lyrics about themes like the hopelessness of 2026 (“Yeah, we’re walkin' on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing’s gonna save us”) with a very aloof detached cool-girl air to it, but the same time she’s undeniably being vulnerable and baring her soul in the songs. The lyrics are emotional, but they’re delivered with a detached monotone. There’s a part of me that wishes that there was just a bit more feeling in it, but I guess the irony and sardonic detachment makes it even more suitable for today, as the cool kids these days are allergic to anything that’s earnest.
I don’t know what it is about this record, it makes me a little bit uncomfortable but I’m also enjoying it at the same time. I think it’s maybe that she did the album in this liminal space while feeling burnt out and just getting how she felt out there that results in something a little bit hard to digest, it’s probably hard to do a casual album about the aftermath suddenly becoming one of the biggest pop stars in the world – I can’t imagine that that would be an easy experience, even if you’ve literally worked for it since you were a kid.
I kind of failed at my mission to listen to something that’s easily palatable, but I’m happy that I did. Is Music, Fashion, Film anywhere near as good as her best work? No, but that’s a high bar. It feels like one of those albums that you almost have to vomit out to be able to get it out there and get to the next thing. I like it, I think, but I’m not really fully sure how I feel about it yet. I’m giving it an 8/10, Also, hell yeah, a 30 minute album, I’ve been saying we should bring those back.