{"id":602827,"date":"2026-07-25T00:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602827\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T00:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:13:11","slug":"charli-xcx-music-fashion-film-review-grimy-indie-rock-somehow-makes-self-absorption-attractive-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602827\/","title":{"rendered":"Charli XCX: Music, Fashion, Film review \u2013 Grimy indie rock somehow makes self-absorption attractive \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music, Fashion, Film<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Artist:<\/strong> Charli XCX<\/p>\n

Label:<\/strong> Atlantic Records<\/p>\n

Charli XCX<\/a>\u2019s Brat was a swinging-from-the-chandeliers celebration<\/a> of hedonism and chaos, but two years as the living manifestation of the project\u2019s party-til-you-drop philosophy has taken its toll on the singer, who embarks on a stark change of direction with its follow-up, Music, Fashion, Film.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s apt that this engaging and spirited record should feature the film-maker Martin Scorsese<\/a> on the cover and finish with the voice of the horror maestro David Cronenberg<\/a> \u2013 both tributes to the singer\u2019s love of film \u2013 because it suffers from an overpowering case of main-character syndrome.<\/p>\n

Do you want to spend your every waking moment wondering what it must be like to be Charli XCX in a post-Brat universe? You\u2019d better, because that\u2019s what the album is about. (On Camera she laments the goldfish-bowl torment of fame. \u201cI\u2019m not a bad girl any more,\u201d she declares on Wink Wink.)<\/p>\n

Solipsism is the last refuge of the creatively bankrupt. But Charli, reuniting with the producer AG Cook, somehow makes self-absorption attractive via the LP\u2019s 30-minute blast of grimy indie rock.<\/p>\n

Guitars are smeared all over the place, like lipstick on a bathroom mirror, right from the album\u2019s Ramones-go-goth opener, Rock Music. Yet that punk-oriented first track is a distraction, and Charli is soon plugging into the grungy melodicism of Sky Ferreira<\/a> (Magic Metal Montana) and the laconic new-wave drawl of Dry Cleaning\u2019s Florence Shaw (Card Declined).<\/p>\n

When it looks up from its own reflection, Music, Fashion, Film is an electrifying album. The ethereal stutter of SS26 suggests the psychedelic duo Let\u2019s Eat Grandma (perhaps no coincidence, as they share a collaborator in late producer Sophie), while Yeah is Charli doing Blur<\/a>\u2019s Song 2, which is as great and derivative as that sounds.<\/p>\n

Brat was the mid-career juggernaut that Charli had always dreamed about but that proved too much and left her wondering if it was all worth it anyway. She was able to move on with her excellent Wuthering Heights soundtrack<\/a>. But that was a diaphanous, woozy affair that didn\u2019t have to live up to the expectations set by its predecessor.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Charli XCX\u2019s Wuthering Heights album is banging, bonkers and better than BratOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There is no such luxury on this official Brat follow-up, and listeners will have to reconcile themselves to lyrics so specifically about Charli\u2019s situation that she risks slipping into self-obsession.<\/p>\n

Yet for all these navel-gazing manoeuvres, the music is a constant delight, and it confirms that she has found a meaningful way of breaking from Brat. She has ditched the lime-green, barfing-in-her-handbag aesthetic and is instead embracing the filth and the fury of the mosh pit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music, Fashion, Film \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 Artist: Charli XCX Label: Atlantic Records Charli XCX\u2019s Brat was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[3901,3030,64684,18,117,19,17,32886,337,159925],"class_list":["post-602827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-blur","tag-charli-xcx","tag-david-cronenberg","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-martin-scorsese","tag-music","tag-sky-ferreira"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116977729822439145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}