Charli XCX has made no secret that, post-‘Brat’, music isn’t what’s inspiring her right now. You can tell that from the projects she has coming up – her own mockumentary film The Moment, a role in Julia Jacklin’s 100 Nights Of Hero, co-writing and appearing in Pete Ohs’ Erupcja, and five other movies in the works. If that didn’t make it obvious enough, she confirmed her feelings in a lengthy Substack post last November, writing: “I’m currently feeling more inspired by film than I am by music.”
Luckily, that doesn’t mean we’ll be starved of new music from her for ages. Thanks to an out-of-the-blue text from Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell – perhaps one of the only things we have to thank her for – we’ve already got the pop star’s first album in the aftermath of ‘Brat’. A solicitation from Fennell for a song for her adaptation’s soundtrack quickly morphed into XCX taking the reins for the whole thing, freed from the typical process of figuring out how to pour her life into songs that speak to her. “I wanted to dive into persona, into a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, British, tortured and full of actual real sentences, punctuation and grammar,” she explained. “Without a cigarette or a pair of sunglasses in sight, it was all totally other from the life I was currently living.”
The results throw us back to 2013 and XCX’s debut album, ‘True Romance’ – a record that bubbled with gothic-tinged, dramatic pop. ‘Wuthering Heights’ takes that and elevates it – a revisitation to the sound from an artist now so much more experienced and accomplished. Created with frequent collaborator Finn Keane, the pair followed John Cale’s quote that songs for The Velvet Underground should be “elegant and brutal”. Certainly, the Cale-featuring opener ‘House’ fits that bill perfectly – the experimental musician delivering a spoken word monologue over discordant, dark strings before it all erupts in a squall of noise and cries of “I think I’m gonna die in this house”.
Guided by the script and Emily Brontë’s story, XCX applies that direction to not just the music but the lyrics, too. On ‘Dying For You’, she describes an all-encompassing, obsessive love in violent terms in a song as addictive as that romance: “Yeah, you’re my favourite jewellery worn like a noose round my neck / I’m losing gallons of blood the river’s turning to red.” The industrial ‘Chains Of Love’ has her declaring she’d “rather light myself on fire” and “watch my skin bleed” than let her partner go.
It’s not just XCX – or her guiding star Cale – who get to dabble in this harsh, toxic romance. The grand, stately ‘Eyes Of The World’ features a rare appearance from Sky Ferreira, who sighs a plea to be set free before drawling: “I let the fire rush to my head / Sabotage to prove I meant what I said.” It’s toxic, but oh so delicious: two 2010s pop powerhouses reunited. Elsewhere, there’s a sense of omnipotence that permeates the album’s themes, ‘Always Everywhere’ more directly weaving ghosts from the book and its environment (“On the hillside, shadows chase the dawn”) into an ode to someone you can’t escape.
In her Substack post, XCX questioned whether ‘Wuthering Heights’ is “a Charli XCX album”. If it were her first official record after ‘Brat’, the response could be different – this soundtrack doesn’t feel like it will create another cultural phenomenon. Perhaps, though, that’s what the star needs to find music inspiring again – a way to lift the pressure and expectations slightly. In the meantime, it delivers a solid slab of new music from her – the perfect soundtrack for a winter of yearning and discontent.
Details
- Record label: Atlantic Records
- Release date: February 13, 2026