When Charli xcx’s "BRAT" was released in June 2024, it created the iconic "brat summer" aesthetic and cemented itself as my favorite album from Charli xcx for its mixture of club pop instrumentals and the themes of the singer's insecurities and personal struggles. So, naturally, I had high hopes for her newest album, "Music, Fashion, Film," released July 24, wondering how she would shift from her previously party club aesthetics.
However, I feel like this new album is a major disappointment compared to the complexity and cohesion of "BRAT," especially since this new body of work focuses on the touchy subject of nihilism.
It seems the pressure of the massive success of "BRAT" as both an album and cultural symbol is one of the direct inspirations for how Charli approached this new album. But she took a major shift in genre and tone this time around, focusing on existentialism and materialism, as well as using a grittier rock-inspired instrumentation.
I first became interested in this album's release after listening to its lead single, "Rock Music," released on May 8. This track, which opens the album, shows how drained Charli is from hyperpop music, claiming "I think the dance floor is dead / So now we're making rock music."
This statement clearly establishes what makes up this album: heavy distorted guitars with minimal electronic influence. It’s stripped down compared to that of her previous era, but I think that the specific use of rock influence works well in Charli's efforts to reflect on the brief nature of life.
Ultimately, where this album fails for me is its lyrical content. It tries to lean too heavily into lyrical irony, and it ends up lacking insight into the problems Charli is discussing.
I felt like Charli tried too hard to make herself seem like a "bad girl" especially in the song "Wink Wink," where her message of insincerity feels gimmicky. The song's title is meant to point out the sarcasm in the song. Starting the track off, she sings "I used to lick cream off strawberries in the summer / And maybe I f— your dad."
The song's juxtaposed lyrics seem more like an effort to prove that she is not as innocent as she appears, making her “wink wink” lose its intended meaning of subtleness.
Furthermore, I felt like these sexual lyrics just proved to be provocative statements used for shock value rather than for the good of the message.
I like tracks that are sonically and lyrically meaningful because they stand out against much of the cash-grab pop music out now. So, it was a letdown when I didn't like the majority of this album's tracks. Charli discussed dense topics in a way that gives them little room to breathe, and I think she could have executed them better.
In the third track "Card Declined," Charli attempts to sing about consumerism and the material value society places on inanimate objects. But the song feels repetitive in its instrumental and lyrical structure as she basically recites the same list of all the objects she is buying numerous times. But since she uses a very monotone voice to force a deeper message onto the song, I felt all the meaning was stripped away.
You can make a song about how society is consumed by material gains, but what deeper input can you provide other than stating "I'll buy some shoes, I'll buy a smile?" This on-the-nose attitude continues throughout, bridging itself with her ideas of nihilism.
The notion that everyone eventually dies and that time is a limited commodity has been often thought of as one of the greatest fears of humanity. And I felt that Charli's exploration of the topic was surface level at best.
For example, in the track "No One Lasts Forever," she finishes the song with the repeated audio clip of David Cronenberg saying, "They are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever." I wish she had questioned what death means on a deeper level than simply stating that nothing and no one lasts forever.
These tracks offer nothing to me besides a restatement of what I already know. I wish she had focused on how that discovery can make someone feel. Wondering how the world moves on after someone dies and how one's ideas can outlast their physical life are both topics I felt like could have been elaborated on longer.
Her message within this album seems to be that since nothing lasts forever, then do whatever you want. And while I agree with that claim, there could have been a better way for someone as talented as Charli to have approached that.
