Charli XCX drops seventh album 'Music, Fashion, Film' with guitar-driven sound

Album release and overview

Charli XCX released her seventh studio album, Music, Fashion, Film, on July 24, 2026, her first full-length project since the era-defining Brat in 2024. The 11-track album spans just over 30 minutes and includes previously released singles "Rock Music," "SS26," "Wink Wink," and "Camera." Co-produced with A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, the record is built around guitar riffs rather than the computer-constructed beats that defined Brat.

Genre and collaborative pivot

Although guitars are the predominant sound, Charli has stressed that Music, Fashion, Film is not a rejection of club music. She wrote on Instagram: "I never said I was making a rock album," explaining that the song "Rock Music" is really about her relationship with Brat. In an interview with music YouTuber Nicky Reardon, she said: "That's shaped who I am as an artist. [Rock Music] is kind of about my pivot from that as an artist who doesn't want to continue to do the same thing over and over and over again." The track includes the lyric "I think the dancefloor is dead, so now we're making rock music." The closing track, "No One Lasts Forever," features director David Cronenberg, whose body-horror film Crash inspired the title of Charli's fifth album, while "Magic Metal Montana" is dedicated to co-producer Cook.

Cover art with three icons

The album is promoted with a black-and-white photograph of Velvet Underground musician John Cale, fashion designer Marc Jacobs, and film director Martin Scorsese sitting together in a kitchen. The image was shot by photographer Iri in New York in April. Cale told Rolling Stone that Charli "had an idea to run by me. There was talk of a video, an ode to an imprint of time and place. Next thing, I was on a flight. Ended up in a random kitchen." The video for single "Camera" starred French actor Vincent Cassel.

Tour plans and live debuts

Charli will tour behind Music, Fashion, Film with festival headlining dates at Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Reading and Leeds over the coming month, followed by arena dates including Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles in the fall. She premiered several new tracks at an intimate Brooklyn show earlier in July, joined by Clairo for a duet of "Sofia," plus Underscores and Kim Petras. A secret London show the week before the album release featured Charli backed by a tight three-piece band with distorted guitars and punchy drums.

Critical reception

Pitchfork's review classified Music, Fashion, Film under Pop/R&B/Rock and called it "a referential, proudly tossed-off rock sound that offers mystifying glances behind the curtain of stardom." The review noted that "Yeah" builds around roughly a dozen words anchored by a Blur-style drop, while "I'm Afraid" leans on Pixies-style guitars and "SS26" muses on pop-star inauthenticity and the apocalypse. Charli herself summed up her approach in a Rolling Stone cover story: "All of my albums work in opposites. They repel against each other, and that's the connective tissue. I knew when I was making it that I was never going to make that record again. It's not creatively rewarding for me to make the same thing twice."