Charli XCX's new album is out and Scorsese is on the cover
Music, Fashion, Film landed on 24 July with John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese on the sleeve and a sound built on processed guitars. The tour starts in September.
It has landed. Music, Fashion, Film, Charli XCX’s eighth studio album, came out on 24 July through Atlantic Records, and the cover is a statement before you hear a note.
Who is on the cover of Music, Fashion, Film?
Three names, one for each word of the title: John Cale for music, Marc Jacobs for fashion, Martin Scorsese for film. It is the sort of gesture that only works when an artist has enough standing to pull it off without looking silly, and after the cultural event that was her last record, she does.
What does the album sound like?
Less party, more tension. The production leans on processed guitar riffs, digitally manipulated vocals and subdued electronic drums, a long way from the club euphoria that made her inescapable. Lyrically, the thread running through it is her own turbulent relationship with the art she makes.
Her longtime collaborators A. G. Cook and Finn Keane handled production and co-wrote the record with her. Four singles cleared the path beforehand, each with a video: Rock Music first, then SS26, Wink Wink and Camera.
When does she take it on the road?
The tour shares the album’s name, runs from September into October, and is the seventh of her career. No Portuguese dates have been announced so far, which stops nobody from hoping for a summer festival slot next year.
Anyone waiting for another dancefloor record will find this a swerve. Anyone who enjoys watching pop artists take risks they did not have to take will find it exactly right — the same instinct behind Jennie of Blackpink heading to Girona for a solo video. Official dates are updated on the artist’s site.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: Erin Mc / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
