In life, there’s always the comedown if it’s not the crash. When it happens to Charli XCX, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s nothing short of pop art expressionism that’s one part obsessive listening habit and another part new formations on the vaguely familiar as she mirrors the current trajectory of the music biz consuming her life and the all-consuming culture it reflects onto our world. In the case of her eigth studio album, that would be best conveyed by the holy trinity of mediums: Music, Fashion, Film.

The dayglo of her mass-baiting BRAT era success which officially anointed her a pop superstar has since began to wear off on the dance floor, and now she’s making rock music. Or at least her own version of it, as her finetuned acumen for the referentially niche explores lesser talked about corners of millennial pop-rock and Y2K aestheticism through digital feedback-crunching distortion (“Rock Music”, “Magic Metal Distortion”), lens flashes (“Camera”,) and oscillating synth and riff tones (“Wink, Wink”, “2007”.) Oft, her delivery is a deadpanned — or, as in the case of its closing track, the master of body horror David Cronenberg feature “Nothing Lasts Forever”, just altogether dead — giving her refashioned sense on experimental electronic and post-punk modernism a more digestible compliment to Kim Gordon and Florence Shaw’s dark, stark observations on morbid meta culture critiques while A.G. keeps the lights beaming bright on her runway.

There’s something to be pondered about Charli’s timing of her latest album’s release as well. Whereas BRAT‘s post-Memorial Day weekend drop kicked off an endless summer of hedonism, Music, Fashion, Film‘s end of summer arrival sees that low sun, shorter daylight wistfulness as the compliment to the listen’s end of world vibes (“SS2026”) and electro-clashed doom scrolling (“Card Declined”.) That’s punctuated by its conclusion, with Cronenberg’s wise words on how “nothing’s gonna last forever” reverberating into the void. Like any contemporary provocative auteur, Charli’s latest art work pops in this moment, unburdening herself of legacy even if it does one day outlive her own, and opts to celebrate the freedom in allowing herself to come down from the high.

Highlights: “Camera”, “Magic Metal Montana”, “No One Lasts Forever”

Charli XCX’s Music, Fashion, Film is available now on Atlantic Records.

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