Charli XCX’s Music, Fashion, Film rides the Brat afterglow
Rolling Stone says Charli XCX’s seventh album turns stardom, image-making and mortality into sharp pop theater.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Charli XCX’s Music, Fashion, Film puts the newly supercharged pop star under her own spotlight, with Rolling Stone critic Caryn Ganz describing the album as a 30-minute look at fame, image-making and the rush of building a persona in public.
Ganz’s review frames the record as the next act after 2024’s Brat, the electro-pop album she says pushed Charli from cult-favorite status into a bigger pop-star lane. The review notes that Charli had long been treated as an experimental force and a songwriter’s songwriter before Brat shifted the scale of her career.
Music, Fashion, Film is Charli’s seventh studio album, according to Rolling Stone. Ganz writes that it finds her working with longtime collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane across 10 short songs and a longer final track.
What is Charli XCX Music, Fashion, Film about?
According to Rolling Stone, the album studies the machinery behind celebrity: clothes, cameras, public attitude, private fear and the tension between performance and sincerity. Ganz writes that Charli uses the record to pick apart the parts of stardom she both enjoys and resists.
The first single, “Rock Music,” signaled a turn away from the club shine of Brat, the review says. Ganz describes the track as built from rough guitar, crashing percussion and chopped-up vocals, while arguing that its real point is less about genre and more about the spirit of making art with friends.
Other songs zoom in on the props and poses of fame. Rolling Stone says “SS26” plays with bad-girl branding at a grim cultural moment, while “Card Declined” begins with a joke about identity and possessions before turning into a brief lovestruck indie-pop moment aimed, apparently, at a coveted handbag.
The album also lets personal relationships into the frame. Ganz writes that “I’m Afraid” addresses Charli’s worries about marrying George Daniel, the drummer for the 1975, while “Magic Metal Montana” celebrates her creative bond with Cook, praising his style, dancing and ability to understand her musical instincts.
How does the album connect music, fashion and film?
Rolling Stone says the record looks at all three as tools for self-invention. The review points to “Camera” as a glimpse of Charli’s interest in film, then to “2007” as a look back at her early days making and sharing an image from her bedroom without outside gatekeepers.
Ganz singles out “Wink Wink” as the album’s standout, describing it as a sharp play on the gap between real identity and public character. In the review, the song uses speak-sung verses, a sticky chorus and jokes about Charli’s reputation to blur confession and performance.
The closing track, “No One Lasts Forever,” takes a colder turn. Rolling Stone says Charli again addresses the idea of being seen as a rude party girl, this time without the wink, before director David Cronenberg appears with a meditation on art outliving its creators.
According to Ganz, Cronenberg’s phrase “no one lasts forever” is looped 27 times, a number with grim rock-history associations. Her review ends by presenting Music, Fashion, Film as the work of an artist using the moment itself as material.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.