After brat took off in a way no one could have predicted, the world had been clawing at Charli xcx, hungry for another tasty TikTok bop painted in bright green. But what happens when the world demands more and more from an artist who just doesn’t work like that and knows it is a full 180?

That 180 has now culminated into her newest album, Music, Fashion, Film. And after listening to it and patiently waiting for it for months, I truly believe this is Charli xcx stepping into a new version of herself while embracing the core of her talent that helped start it all for her.

Rock Music: The first track in the album solidifies Charli xcx’s shift in artistry. She knows that she is more than being marketable for the radio. She is divorcing herself from “just making dance music” with the lyrics, “Yeah we’re onto the next/I think the dancefloor is dead/So now we’re making rock.” But nevertheless not taking herself too seriously. As of course, before releasing the song, Charli xcx shared in British Vogue that she was “making rock music now,” only to release an electro-pop song called “Rock Music.”

SS26: Charli xcx grasps at the worlds of art she has become rather involved in within the lyrics of this solemn second track. She isn’t blaming them for the state of the world society has found itself in, but rather bluntly stating that music, fashion, and film will not save us when comfort is collapsing around us. And yet, we still want that comfort. So “when the world is gonna end, I’ll hope for any fit.” And even though in the song she cannot deny the irony of things, she still comments on how we fall back on the things we know with, “But I think I’ll be alright if I look good in the clothes.”

Card Declined: Materialism is highlighted in this third track. With the repeating lyrics speaking on buying something — “Let’s go shopping, I’ll buy a handbag/I’ll buy some shoes, I’ll buy a smile/I’ll buy some jewelry, a personality/A whole backstory, card declined.” She’s showing that people can try to become anything, but in doing so, you aren’t truly anyone. You’re not yourself. You are an aesthetic, a pretty thing to look at. But that can never make up for wearing something chic and being you simultaneously.

Camera: Camera delves into Charli xcx’s exploration of acting and how it feels compared to singing and producing. But while she is thriving under this new medium with lyrics of, “It makes me wanna throw my life away/All the music, all the people” and “I can be anything I want to be/And I can feel things I don’t normally feel.” But there is a violence to this — an unprecedented and scraping reveal of what is being presented to Charli xcx in a time of her life she worries is too late and revealing.

2007: I didn’t find much to be dissected from the lyrics of this track alone. But the year 2007 is a very special one to Charli xcx. That was the year that her music career was created. A track like this referencing such a monumental year in her life recognizes Charli xcx’s roots, which is what I think is a very sweet tie-in to show where she is now in her career. She doesn’t truly think the “dancefloor is dead” with this track. Meaning, she’s not truly done forever with making the kind of music that skyrocketed and launched her career.

I’m Afraid: Following in theme with the album’s dive into film and fashion along with music, Charli xcx uses this track to confide in the listener her fear of her marriage and overall life being taken over and destroyed by her descent into these creative escapades. Despite these fears mostly having no merit, she can’t shake them. The most notable lyric of the chorus is, “I’m nothing without him,” after listing all the labels of things she is in people’s lives, and then labeling herself again with, “I’m too drunk, I’m a bitch/I’m destroyed, I can’t sleep.”

Yeah: Lyrically, this track doesn’t really have much going for it, but where it shines is the combination of the opening guitar strums and a drumset coming in, then putting all of that in the background as the beat drops. The beat drop brings in some harder electronic mixing. These elements mix together in a tasteful track that shows off musically.

Wink Wink: While this can be written off as a typical “bad girl” track, I think there is something deeper here. In the chorus, Charli xcx sings, “Here’s the truth, and I gotta be honest/I’m not a bad girl anymore/Wink, wink, wink, wink.” Charli xcx says that she has changed and “people can change.” But she still gives a wink to the listener. At the end of the day, she is still the same artist who released “I love it” and brat. Charli xcx doesn’t want to be put in a box, and neither should any other creative.

Persona: In this confrontational track, Charli xcx is speaking to someone about how fake they are. I see it as Charli xcx speaking to herself, hoping her “persona” isn’t being blurred. The track also has well-written lyrics, like, “I know you’re performing, I know you’re hurting/So you try to hide it when you see me coming” and “You call me your best friend to keep me at arm’s length/I’d write you a letter, but you’d probably burn it.”

Magic Metal Montana: Starting with the lyrics, “Call you A. G. in my phonebook / Feels so special just to know you,” this track is spelling out that it’s dedicated to A. G. Cook, a long-time producer and best friend of Charli xcx. The track is a sweet love letter to someone who has impacted Charli xcx’s music and her life.

No One Lasts Forever: As the title says, the final track in the album bluntly states that no one lasts forever. The track goes through an entire story of Charli xcx talking to a French woman while on the floor of an apartment. In this conversation, the French woman tells Charli xcx that, “‘No one really knows what the future holds/But we know nothing’s gonna last forever.’” Charli xcx accepts in this last track that nothing — not her, or any kind of piece of art she puts out owill last forever. The ending monologue by David Cronenberg pushes this notion further as he brings up how though some artists’ work survives for thousands of years, it doesn’t matter to them anymore. “They are dead, they are gone, they are not experiencing that/…oblivion is freedom.”

I couldn’t tell you when Charli xcx decided that the new audience after brat doesn’t care about her art, but I do remember the clip of her performing arguably one of her most iconic songs “I love it” to an audience of motionless viewers on her Sweat tour. Standing there, she says to the blank-faced floor — which would have been the most expensive tickets — as the chorus plays out, “Are you fucking joking?”

What I can tell you is that Charli xcx buried brat a long time ago. She burnt the lime green after her tour, and parodied that version of herself with her mockumentary “The Moment.” This album is about doing something new and revisiting what has always worked for the artist at the same time. It confesses her fears and growing love for fashion and film, roots her relationship with music deeper, and opens the door to the terrifying and yet exhilarating future she is building towards.

The post Review | Music, Fashion, Film and a reflection of Charli xcx appeared first on The Daily Iowan.

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