Charli XCX Says She Wants to “Quit Music” for New Career Endeavor
But “when inspiration strikes,” she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in June, “I feel like you would be kind of naïve to not jump at it.”
“I feel so lucky to get the inspiration that I get when I get it that I don’t ever feel like I can let it slip past,” Charli continued. “So, this came randomly. I was not expecting it. But I kind of went with it, and I’m happy that I did.”
The result was Music, Fashion, Film, a 30-minute compilation of songs that debuted July 24. No, it’s not like her last album, 2024’s Brat—which, if you ask Charli, is kind of the point.
“Once you have that kind of experience, people really want you to be that kind of artist forever,” the Grammy winner added, “and I’m just never going to be someone who’s like that.”
So while she understands “anything that I do next will be compared to Brat,” she said, she also knows, “the only way I could be rewarding to myself creatively is to just follow what I want to do.”
Music, Fashion, Film does just that as it explores her passions in those three categories. In fact, the cover art features people Charli admires from each group: The Velvet Underground rocker John Cale for music, designer Marc Jacobs for fashion and Martin Scorsese for film.
“Everybody sort of has their favorite people—their music, fashion, film,” the 33-year-old recently shared with Scott Lipps on SPIN Magazine’s Lipps Service, “and I think that’s kind of the fun of the title in a way as well.”
When it comes to the album’s sound, she reiterated it’s “very different” from Wuthering Heights and Brat and that some people may find these contrasts “quite jarring and quite stark.”
“I think the scrappy nature of it is sort of reflective of the kind of in-the-moment thought process around making things, because that is really a lot of what the record is about,” Charli explained. “It’s about thinking about how lucky I feel to be able to what I do, how creating things makes me feel so happy and alive and fulfilled, but also how it’s sort of tortuous sometimes. We wanted the sound of the record to reflect the in-process-ness of the topic.”
Brook Mitchell / AFP via Getty Images
This departure is made clear right away with the first track “Rock Music,” in which she belts out, “I think the dance floor is dead. So now we’re singing rock music.” While she clarified on Instagram the song “is not actually rock music” and she “never said I was making a rock album,” that didn’t stop the wave of attention around the lyric. Even Madonna wrote in a post, “If your Dance floor feels dead. Maybe you’re playing the wrong music.”
However, Charli has noted she doesn’t actually think the dance floor is dead. Brat was, after all, named Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2025, and her husband does run a dance music label (George even makes a cameo in the music video and Charli re-wears her wedding dress in it).
“That lyric from that song is about my relationship with Brat,” she recently clarified on Nicky Reardon’s Nicky at Night. “I’ve made electronic-leaning music. That shaped who I am. It’s 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.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Next up is “SS26″—a fitting name considering Charli recorded the album during Paris Fashion Week. And while she sings, “Spring, Summer ’26 / When the world is gonna end, no hope for any of it / Yeah, we’re walkin’ on a runway that goes straight to hell,” the British artist said the song is about persona rather than the state of the world.
“If you’re on the internet, there is this sort of level of persona,” Charli continued, “this level of feeling like you need to be on the right side of every single conversation and not get things wrong and apologize for things, how big or small, that you’ve done to ultimately lead you towards some kind of moral sanctuary that will still actually not ever be enough.”
After that, comes “Card Declined.” Calling the track’s perspective “flamboyant and braggy,” Charli told British Vogue in a May cover story, “It crosses over into how you can dress up who you are and become the ideal fantasy that you want to be in that moment. Everybody is performing, in a way.”
Then, it’s on to “Camera,” which explores Charli’s feelings about starting acting.
“It’s a very impulsive state to be in,” she added. “That can be terrifying but it can also unlock this instinct in you, and it’s scary but it’s kind of nice, like, f–k it. And maybe I’ll fall on my face and humiliate myself but maybe I’ll do something really powerful, and if you don’t try, you never know.”
Olivia Wong/WireImage
Meanwhile, “2007”—a year when Charli’s music career was just beginning—is “about how everybody can have their own moment of fabulousness all through their phone in 15 seconds,” she continued. “It’s sort of the ultimate screen test.”
Going down the list, “I’m Afraid” is next followed by “Yeah” and “Wink Wink.”
“‘Wink Wink,’ I suppose in a way, is another song about persona,” Charli added on Nicky at Night, “in that it’s kind of about playing into these things that people sort of think that you are and then kind of being like, ‘But I’m not that anymore.'”
As she put it, “There are these boxes that people want to put you in and this is me sort of dancing around in that box.”
According to a fan account, Charli’s stylist Chris Horan noted on Instagram Stories that they gave nods to her former chapters in the music video by featuring outfits she wore in past eras—including Brat, “Pop 2” and “Party 4 U”—on a clothesline in the background.
Near the end of the album is “Persona” and “Magic Metal Montana.” The latter is an ode to her longtime collaborator A.G. Cook, with Charli opening the song with the lyric, “Call you A.G. in my phonebook.”
Finally, the album ends with “No One Lasts Forever featuring David Cronenberg,” the Canadian director who closes out the song by reflecting on artists and their work and then repeating, “They are dead. They are gone. No one lasts forever.”
For Charli, as she told British Vogue, the track made her feel like everything is “profound and important” but still fleeting.
“The song will end and my time doing what I’m doing will end,” she shared. “And so I think, because everything is so finite, all I can do is just be true to myself.”
In honor of this new beginning with Music, Fashion, Film’s release, look back at Charli’s previous chapters.
(Photo by Andy Sheppard/Redferns)
2009
Charli XCX began her music career in 2008, posting songs on Myspace before being discovered by a promoter.
(Photo by Marc Broussely/Redferns)
2011
After signing a recording contract with Asylum Records in 2010, the singer-songwriter (real name Charlotte Emma Aitchison) spent her early years discovering what kind of musician she wanted to be.
“I didn’t know who I was,” she told The Guardian in 2013. “I didn’t know what I liked. Even though I was signed, I was still figuring it out.”
(Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
2012
The Cambridge, England, native had her first major breakthrough as a writer and collaborator on Icona Pop‘s “I Love It,” which hit number one in the U.K. the following year.
(Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images)
2013
Charli released her debut studio album, True Romance, in April 2013.
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/AMA2014/WireImage)
2014
The following year brought yet another iconic collaboration with the release of “Fancy” with Iggy Azalea. And it wasn’t long after that her track “Boom Clap” became a sensation after being featured in The Fault in Our Stars, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort.
(Photo by George Pimentel/LP5/Getty Images for TAS)
2015
She joined Taylor Swift for a punk performance of “Shake It Off” during the 1989 World Tour stop in Toronto.
(Photo by Toby Zerna/Newspix/Getty Images)
2016
Charli traded in her signature edgy style for a sporty tennis skirt in this 2016 portrait session.
(Photo by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images for Coach)
2017
The British pop sensation stayed true to herself as her career took off, releasing mixtape, Number 1 Angel in 2017.
“Number 1 Angel is probably my favorite music that I’ve released,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle that March. “It was me just doing my thing, saying what was on my mind, without pressure or intention.”
(Photo by John Shearer/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS)
2018
She once again joined Taylor on stage, playing over 50 stadiums as one of two openers—Camila Cabello was the other—for the Reputation Stadium Tour.
Fans later wondered if there was bad blood after Charli released “Sympathy Is a Knife” in 2024, and Taylor dropped “Actually Romantic” the following year. However, the Brat artist insisted on TikTok her song wasn’t a diss track.
“People are gonna think what they want to think,” Charli added to New York Magazine in 2024. “That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt.”
(Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for Pandora)
2019
Five years after her last studio album, she released her third studio album, Charli.
“This is the most personal body of work I will have released,” she told E! News in September 2019. “I cover ground I have covered before, but I also delve into my own mental health, which is a new thing for me. It just felt like the right time to discuss it.”
(Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Warner Music)
2020
To the Brit Awards, Charli opted for a “chic and girly” look—as she described to British Vogue—donning a black Fendi gown.
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
2021
The “Apple” singer was dressed to impress in a lacy black dress for the 2021 MTV Music Awards.
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Spotify)
2022
The Grammy nominee posed with Paris Hilton for the 2022 Spotify Wrapped playground party in Los Angeles.
(Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
2023
She’s everywhere, she’s so Julia—including at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar party, where she stunned in a gothic two-piece gown.
(Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
2024
The pop star attended the 2024 Met Gala, rocking a punk-inspired Marni gown that was mended together from vintage T-shirts.
(Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns)
2024
Brat summer has officially begun with Charli XCX touring with Troye Sivan for their 2024 Sweat Tour.
The release of Charli’s sixth album, Brat, kicked a viral cultural phenomenon into gear, with even Vice President Kamala Harris playing into the trend as part of her presidential campaign. After all, Charli proudly deemed the politician to be “so brat.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
2025
Charli will never forget the 2025 Grammys. Not only did she perform that night, but she also took home three trophies, including Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Recording Package for Brat as well as Best Dance Pop Recording for “Von dutch.”
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