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What can't Charli xcx be?

The FADER Newsletter - Monday July 27, 2026


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MONDAY JULY 27, 2026

On Music, Fashion, Film, Charli xcx stands equal to her idols

The pop star’s new album is an ode to the power of creation through fun, intelligent pop music with a razor-sharp edge.
I hope you’re not sick of Charli xcx yet.

After a fictional biopic (The Moment) and a soundtrack album (Wuthering Heights) earlier this year, Music, Fashion, Film is the pop darling’s newest offering and the record she formally considers her follow up to 2024’s era-defining album Brat.

No one else matches her work ethic in the pop world. B-sides, remix albums, tours, movies, the works. She’s a loyal collaborator and friend who seems to be relishing her newfound celebrity. It’s not that she was ever an underground artist — “Fancy” and “I Love It” catapulted her to the top of the charts — but her output often eschewed chasing trends. She preferred working with PC Music and releasing EPs. She hates the kinds of albums like Crash that her label pressured her into making. She enjoys pushing back against her image, using each new album to erase and remix her previous sonic palette. It’s a relief that even as she reinvents herself, she still crafts fun, intelligent pop music with a razor-sharp edge.
It’s a relief that even as she reinvents herself, she still crafts fun, intelligent pop music with a razor-sharp edge.
Charli xcx tries on deadpan indie sleaze for her seventh studio album, Music, Fashion, Film, which doles out grim zingers, sincere reflections on mortality, and trollish comebacks with equal relish. It’s a powerful take on creative freedom, a way to shake off the boxy expectations laid on pop stars after a big moment. She hates being boxed in or predictable; after a line from “Rock Music” went viral in critic Laura Snapes’s profile in British Vogue, she posted on Instagram that she had not, in fact, made a rock record. The jangly, catchy second single “SS26” channels apocalyptic vibes into the song of the summer. Perhaps it’s not a traditional rock record but guitars are all over the album — even the most poppy tracks feature power chords. “Wink Wink” is one of Charli’s best songs in years and its tongue-in-cheek, horny music video is a sumptuous triumph of tits and ass in suburban England. I only wish she’d included the infectious and witty b-side “Playboy Bunny” on the final tracklist.

Recorded primarily in Paris last fall after a period of post-Brat exhaustion, Charli’s new album meditates on the nature of becoming a renowned artist and icon who dabbles in a variety of media. Whether considering her recent foray into acting (“Camera”) or her YSL brand ambassadorship (“SS26,” “Card Declined”), Charli’s trying to figure out her next career move. “Am I being fuckin' stupid / If I try to be a girl on the screen when I'm turning thirty-four?” she asks on “Camera.” She’s always been an underdog, but now she’s a bona fide hit gracing the cover of Vogue, throwing a highly-publicized wedding, and starring in movies like Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex and Pete Oh’s Erupjca. What else can she be?
Click here to read the full feature on TheFADER.com
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