Recommendations of the Editorial team
“I never claimed to make a rock album,” Charli XCX wrote on Instagram in May, shortly before releasing her single “Rock Music.” On July 24th we will find out what an album she actually made.
The cover of “Music, Fashion, Film” features a new photo of three greats from their respective fields: Velvet Underground member John Cale (who collaborated with Charli on the “Wuthering Heights” track “House”), designer Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese. The recording was made by Aidan Zamiri, who also shot the music video for “Rock Music”.
A full tracklist has not yet been announced, but the album will contain the two previously released songs: “Rock Music” and “SS26”, both of which feature the guitar playing a central role. “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we make rock music,” she sings on the first track. However, she herself advises against taking the verse literally – she wrote on Instagram: “I won’t explain where I came from with ‘Rock Music’, but I just know that things can be funny, sincere, honest and joyful at the same time, and that’s exactly how I feel about a lot of what I do.”
Album title from “SS26”
The album title comes from a line from the laconic, wistful “SS26”: “When the world is gonna end, no hope for any of it,” she sings there. “Yeah, we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion, or film.”
In April, Charli revealed to Vogue magazine that she had consciously changed her sound. “If I had made another album that was more dance-oriented, it would have felt really heavy and sad,” she said. “What interests me, however, is exploring the possibilities of my perspective on it.” Producer AG Cook told Vogue that the sonic change was deeply felt. “This isn’t just a flexing of muscles like, ‘Oh, I made this other album,'” he said. “It really responds to a feeling that a lot of people have in 2026 – that there is so much, almost too much.”
Acting career takes off
In February, Charli released “Wuthering Heights,” her soundtrack to the Emerald Fennell film adaptation. At the same time, she has embarked on a new career as an actress – with three releases already this year: the A24 mockumentary “The Moment”, which she designed and produced and in which she plays a fictionalized version of herself; the horror remake “Faces of Death”; and the comedy “Erupcja”. She can also be seen in the erotic thriller “I Want Your Sex,” which hits theaters on July 31st – a week after the album release.
