Critics Are Calling Charli XCX's Brat Follow-Up Music, Fashion, Film 'Fascinating'

The Grammy winner was never going to please everyone with her new album – nor was she trying to.

After the juggernaut success of her 2024 album Brat, Charli XCX has taken a big swing with the follow-up Music, Fashion, Film – and it’s one that appears to have paid off if reviews of her new release are anything to go by.

It’s well-documented by now that Charli took a very markedly different approach when putting Music, Fashion, Film, swerving the dance floor-ready sounds of Brat for something more organic and inspired by rock (though she has dismissed previous reports suggesting that her new material is a full-on “rock album”).

The finished product, released on Friday, sees the British star reflecting on some of the themes of Brat, including fame, success and identity, in new ways, with a series of rave reviews applauding its creativity and bravery, branding it “fascinating”, “triumphant” and proof of her status as one of pop’s “most interesting” figures.

And hey – the fact it’s also ruffled some feathers (more critical reviews have suggested it’s a “frustrating” and lacking in “substance”) is probably just a bonus to Charli, right?

Here’s what critics have had to say about Music, Fashion, Film so far…

“Another gorgeously astute and disarmingly deep album about the instability of identity – not just as a vanguard songwriter striving for evolution, but how much we can ever know one another, or even ourselves [...] Does she contradict herself? Absolutely. Does that unsparing compulsion to lay it all out for us – the ego and self-hate; the defensiveness and chagrin – make Charli our most consistently bracing pop star?........

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