All posts tagged: XCX

Reading Festival 2026 review: Charli XCX, Fontaines DC and Geese lead rock-heavy Friday

Reading Festival 2026 review: Charli XCX, Fontaines DC and Geese lead rock-heavy Friday

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This After a summer of abnormal, scorching warmth and weeks-long stretches without so much as a drop of rain, day one of Reading Festival 2026 feels almost quaint. The sky is an ocean of dark, angry grey; rain clatters down over throngs of inadequately waterproofed revellers. During a set from the US rock band Geese, the tented stage springs a leak, dousing a metre-by-metre patch in the middle of the crowd. The mud is fiendish. In other words, fear not: the British Festival Experience lives! Like most festivals of its size, Reading has only a loose musical identity at this point. Its bookers don’t tend to discriminate between rock, pop, and hip-hop; if young people listen to it, they’ll have it. With the notable exception of a set by grime pioneer Skepta, though, Friday’s bill is distinctly rock-focused. There’s even a Gallagher on the …

Charli XCX showcases toned legs in tiny shorts

Charli XCX showcases toned legs in tiny shorts

Published by Daniella Wilson

Charli XCX turned heads this week as she stepped out in a daring all-black ensemble in Los Angeles on Friday, July 24, 2026. The 33-year-old singer showcased her toned legs in a pair of tiny black hot pants while attending the Music, Fashion, Film pop-up, held to celebrate the release of her seventh studio album of the same name. Charli teamed the thigh-skimming shorts, which featured statement gold buttons, with a fitted asymmetric top that left one shoulder exposed. © GC ImagesCharli XCX at the “Music, Fashion, Film” pop-up Adding an extra touch of glamour, the British star wore glossy black peep-toe heels and carried a quilted black shoulder bag with a silver chain strap. She finished the look with angular black sunglasses, while her long raven hair was worn loose in soft waves around her shoulders. © GC ImagesThe 33-year-old wore her signature black The singer kept her beauty look understated, opting for a fresh complexion and neutral lip, with a pale blue pedicure providing a subtle pop of colour against her monochrome outfit. …

Charli XCX Taps David Cronenberg For a Collab That Explains ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

Charli XCX Taps David Cronenberg For a Collab That Explains ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Over the last few years, Charli XCX has emerged as the music world’s most high-profile Letterboxd power user. (That’ll come to no surprise of anyone who has a passing interest in online movie culture, has taken a cursory scan at the genre-bending pop titan’s socials.) Yet still, plenty of eyebrows shot up when David Cronenberg, the legendary body-horror auteur behind gnarly hits like Crash—the inspiration for the title of Charli’s fifth studio album—was revealed to feature on the closing track for her new album Music, Fashion, Film. Perhaps the last part of that title should’ve provided some clues. The album artwork also features similarly seminal Hollywood titan Martin Scorsese, alongside Velvet Underground frontman John Cale and designer Marc Jacobs. When revealed, the cover seemed to reflect two things: firstly, Charli’s embrace of film and fashion as new modes of expression, be it through that aforementioned reinvention as an active online cinephile, or her turn towards acting as a side-hustle. But they are also all men who cast long shadows over the art forms they represent; …

Charli xcx Takes a Sharp Turn with Music, Fashion, Film

Charli xcx Takes a Sharp Turn with Music, Fashion, Film

Published by Sam Flores

When Charli XCX walked out for her 2025 Coachella set wearing a sash that said “Miss Should Be Headliner,” all the club kids, pop-girlies, and music nerds in the crowd—many of them dressed exactly like Charli—lost it. The Coachella performance was the height, and supposed end, of Brat summer—a global cultural phenomenon so big that Kamala Harris co-opted it during her presidential campaign. After the music stopped, Charli stood still as giant screens flashed a contentious inner-monologue. “Does this mean that Brat Summer is finally over? Idk? Maybe? Wait, was it? No?? Yeah cuz duh it was already over like last year. Wait. Was it? NO??? I don’t know who I am if it’s over??? F–KKKKKKKK.” Beneath that campy meta-commentary lies real anxiety. In her film The Moment and in interviews joking about escaping “Khia Asylum”— the internet’s imaginary jail for past-their-prime pop-stars—Charli also acknowledged the fear that her biggest breakthrough could also mark its peak; that she’ll forever be known as the Brat girl. It’s a valid concern considering new releases from female pop …

Charli XCX, Music Fashion Film review – There are moments of excellence in this perplexing, frustrating Brat follow-up

Charli XCX, Music Fashion Film review – There are moments of excellence in this perplexing, frustrating Brat follow-up

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Charli XCX is in a quandary. Or at least, that’s how it seems on her seventh album, Music Fashion Film. It’s been a strange, disjointed rollout for the pop star’s latest full-length release – her third in just over two years, if we’re including her Wuthering Heights soundtrack – not least because of the mixed messages about what the project is. The sound and themes, too, are confusing and often contradictory. This makes sense if you know how Music Fashion Film came about. The artist born Charlotte Aitchison felt creatively drained from the era-defining sensation that was 2024’s Brat – a work that sparked endless memes, merch, TikTok dances and smoking habits. After that, she was “not inspired to write anything new”. Then her longtime collaborator AG Cook suggested they record while in Paris for fashion week; the idea of working in such …

Charli XCX Returns With ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

Charli XCX Returns With ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Following much anticipation, Charli XCX is officially back with Music, Fashion, Film, her seventh album overall and her first since her seminal Brat took over the world in 2024. While she hasn’t technically released a solo album since then, pop’s most trendsetting auteur has been certifiably, emphatically, Not On A Break. “The second people are getting sick of you, that’s when you have to go even harder,” Kylie Jenner, playing a fictionalized version of herself, told Charli in one of the most-memorable parts of her mockumentary film The Moment, which came out back in January. Whether that was meant to be delivered with sincerity or irony, it certainly carries some level of poignancy of how Charli has operated since Brat summer started. She released Brat’s deluxe version three days after the original album drop, then the Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat remix album in October. She embarked on two headlining arena tours — the Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan, and her eponymous Brat Tour. She’s had roles in seven different feature …

Charli xcx: Music, Fashion, Film review – slippery search into selfhood that hits just as hard as Brat | Music

Charli xcx: Music, Fashion, Film review – slippery search into selfhood that hits just as hard as Brat | Music

Published by Sam Flores

After a decade spent trailblazing a unique kind of pop freedom from the genre’s fringes, A-list success seemed like the thing that might finally trap Charli xcx. Her 2024 club-rat opus Brat spawned memes, embarrassing political bandwagoning, Collins’ word of the year and possibly terminal damage to the bra industry. Its ludicrous cultural impact looked set to pickle her as a caricature of a Parliament-toting bad girl; the question of whether “Brat summer” could last – whether Charli could sustain the interest – was so rife she turned it into a mockumentary, The Moment. It made success look miserable: your creation turned cringe by execs wanting to milk their prize cow dry of every last acid-green drop. Charli xcx: Music, Fashion, Film. Photograph: Aidan Zamiri Even for a pop star renowned for reinvention, it put a higher price on her next move. Pivot and risk losing new fans and looking wilfully contrarian. When Charli released the sub-two-minute single Rock Music, many heard it as a middle finger. “I think the dancefloor is dead,” she drawls …

Summer soundtrack: Charli XCX and the return of The Strokes – arts24

Summer soundtrack: Charli XCX and the return of The Strokes – arts24

Published by Sam Flores

On today’s Arts24 music show, Jennifer Ben Brahim brings us a roundup of upcoming album releases to add to your summer playlists. From the return of indie sleaze icons The Strokes, who are set to release their first album in six years, “Reality Awaits”, to a British pop star hoping to recreate the success of her 2024 record Brat – the album that sparked the viral internet trend dubbed “Brat Summer”. Her seventh album, Music, Fashion, Film, features musician John Cale, designer Marc Jacobs and filmmaker Martin Scorsese on the cover. Here’s the single “Wink Wink”. We also bring you interviews with Franco-Cuban twins Ibeyi, who have released their sun-soaked album “Offering”, as well as French rising star Aupinard, who is touring festivals this summer with his debut album “spleen. social club”. Source link

Charli xcx Throws a Phone-Free ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ Playback at New York City’s Metrograph

Charli xcx Throws a Phone-Free ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ Playback at New York City’s Metrograph

Published by Jenni Sidey

“Well, this is the first listen of the album,” she continued, “and I think there couldn’t be a better place to hear it. I am so proud of this body of work, and I made all of the videos and the footage that are accompanying the songs with my friends, and that’s kind of like a big theme throughout the record: me and my friends—you know, controversially.” (Big laugh.) “We had so much fun making these little vignettes and films, and we were filming a lot throughout the recording process of Music, Fashion, Film, which was mostly made in Paris, but a little bit kind of all over the place.” “I would say this album is, in a way, all about how lucky I feel to be able to do what I do. I feel so indebted to art, to get to create things. I feel like it’s such a huge part of who I am, and without being able to make things, I kind of don’t know who I would be. That’s such a …