A new Charli XCX album, ‘Music, Fashion, Film’, is coming next month, and in keeping with the album title, the cover features three heavyweights from the world of music, fashion and film...
British singer and songwriter Charli XCX has announced the follow-up to her record-breaking and zeitgeist capturing 2024 album‘brat’ - which sparked the pop culture phenomenon ‘brat summer’. Her new album, titled ‘Music, Fashion, Film’, is set to be released next month and features an unexpected all-star cast on the cover.
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In keeping with the title, the cover features founding Velvet Underground member John Cale, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese – with each figure representing the three ‘aspects’ of the album.
Check out the cover below:
Charli XCX posted the photo, shot by Aidan Zamiri, on her social media channels, where she also confirmed that the new album would be released on 24 July
“My new album ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ is out July 24. 11 songs, 30 minutes, five seconds. available to pre order now, love you,” Charli wrote in the caption.
This news comes after the 33-year-old singer stated she was wanting to distance herself from the sound of ‘brat’ - which was her mainstream breakthrough and won her three Grammys last year.
Two singles from the new album have already been released - 'Rock Music' and 'SS26'.
The first is a either an awkward tongue in cheek parody or one of the worst singles of 2026. Featuring a lot of distorted guitars, the song includes terrible lyrics like: “Me and my friends, we go out / We take pictures and make stuff together / And sometimes we cry / We kiss each other, real incestuous vibes” and “I think the dancefloor is dead / So now we’re making rock music”.
The accompanying video for the single was equally rubbish, aiming for provocation by hitting a lot of rock clichés (everyone smokes a lot, we’re so edgy) but ending up as a mainstream trolling attempt which felt like an uninspired nosedive, especially coming off the back of one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the past five years.
As for ‘SS26’, it’s a lot better - an earworm which features the lyrics: “We’re walkin’ on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion or film.”
So, one dud and one hit, and fans will have to wait until July to find out if ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ is a worthy successor to ‘brat’.
Elsewhere, Charli XCX helmed the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights and has also worked on other projects such music for the A24 film, Mother Mary.
Outside of music, the singer has also moved into acting as she starred in her own mockumentary, The Moment, and had a role in 100 Nights Of Hero. Most recently, she's starred in romantic drama Erupcja.
‘Music, Fashion, Film’ is out on 24 July.
