She can't believe it herself: "Wow - I'm really banging my neck", Charli xcx sings right at the beginning of her new album on the opener "Rock Music". "Music, Fashion, Film" is neither Brat 2.0 nor a rock album. Maybe we should just stop trying to impose concepts on Charli and take her seriously as an artist.
For years, Charli xcx has been one of the most restless artists in the pop world. Studio albums, mixtapes, soundtracks, collaborations, film projects - hardly anyone reinvents themselves so consistently. This principle runs through her seventh (!) studio album as well. Guitars, edgy rhythms and a slightly rocked-down indie-sleaze aesthetic expand her sound without displacing the pop. In a way, the Brat queen is now even cooler: much of it feels deliberately raw and sketch-like, yet the songs remain surprisingly catchy.
Wink, wink
With eleven songs and just over 30 minutes running time, the album dispenses with any filler. Especially "SS26" combines a catchy melody with an underlying apocalyptic mood: "We're walking down a runway straight to hell. Nothing can save us, not music, fashion, film". The minimalist "Yeah", on the other hand, consists only of a musical idea that weaves together tempo, dynamics and a few lines of text.
A highlight is"Wink Wink", which perfectly captures Charli xcx's play with self-staging and irony. She parodies her image as an eternal party girl and claims with a wink that she has now become "well-behaved". Yeah, right.
Thematically, "Music, Fashion, Film" revolves around life after the big breakthrough. While "Brat" exposed intimate insecurities and interpersonal conflicts, this time Charli deals more with her public role and the theme of creativity.
The embodiment of the theme can be found on the cover. It's not Charli herself sitting in black-and-white aesthetics in a random kitchen that Jim Jarmusch couldn't have ordered better, but musician John Cale, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and film director Martin Scorsese. Three heavyweights of their respective art industries.
Charli sings about acting ambitions, fashion campaigns, luxury and the pressure of constantly being a projection screen. At the same time, she takes a critical look at celebrity culture and consumerism. "Camera" is about the addiction to self-presentation, "Card Declined" exercises capitalism critique. It gets more personal in "I'm Afraid", which deals with her doubts before marrying George Daniel of The 1975, or in "Magic Metal Montana", a declaration of love to her longtime producer A. G. Cook.
No one lasts forever - not even artists
The emotional conclusion is "No One Lasts Forever". Between floating synthesizers, Charli reflects on transience and artistic legacy before cult director David Cronenberg takes over with a spoken monologue and reports for almost two minutes in a loop what ultimately awaits everyone who hopes to make themselves immortal through art: "They are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever.".
