After the neon-drenched pop culture phenomenon of the Brat era, Charli xcx is switching gears entirely with Music, Fashion, Film, trading in her signature hyper-pop polish for something more grounded, cinematic, and conceptual. The album feels intimate yet sharp, evoking the backstage chaos of a runway show, the quiet downtime on a film set and the energy of underground art-rock sessions. Alex Peters from When The Horn Blows argues that Music, Fashion, Film feels like the opposite of Brat’s “heightened, exaggerated version of her persona” and rather “a project that is entirely, unmistakably her, from the eyebrow raising lyrics to the sonic direction itself”.
Charli does not appear on the album cover. Instead, the artwork features a black-and-white portrait of three legendary titans, each personifying one of the creative disciplines named in the title:
Music: John Cale, co-founder of The Velvet Underground and influential avant-garde musician.
Fashion: Marc Jacobs, iconic American fashion designer.
Film: Martin Scorsese, acclaimed visionary filmmaker.
The cover takes these massive figures of high culture, drops them into a casual setting (a nondescript kitchen) and perfectly sums up Charli's witty, tongue-in-cheek take on fame and art colliding.
Charli announced the Music, Fashion, Film Tour on June 8, sharing the news across her platforms, notably Instagram and X, captioning the announcement with "Soooo excited to announce the Music, Fashion, Film Tour ! Can't wait to party together again, it's gonna be cute xx." Needless to say, after experiencing Charli live on the Sweat Tour, along with Troye Sivan, I was eager to experience her performance at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The show was an electrifying theatrical spectacle. She transformed Barclays into a gritty, bass-heavy underground club, keeping the pedal to the metal until the final strobe flashed. She also cleverly wove each element of the album and tour’s title into the show’s aesthetic. Indeed, Paolo Ragusa from Consequence highlights “multiple costume changes (including a leather minidress that reads, “I’VE HAD SEX WITH CHARLI XCX”), flashy runway sequences, and a confetti cannon during Guess that launch a barrage of Charli xcx-branded panties in the air” for Fashion. She also played to the camera following her around the stage, creating a cinematic experience for the audience.
I will say I was a little disappointed that she only performed two songs from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack, House and Dying For You. It is such a hauntingly beautiful album which ties in perfectly with the Film part of the tour and I was hoping to hear a few more tracks, at least Chains Of Love. Nevertheless, she packed the setlist with plenty of hits spanning her career so some omissions can be forgiven.
The complete setlist was as follows:
Rock Music
Yeah
Apple
Wink Wink
Persona
Card Declined
I'm Afraid
Track 10
Girl, so confusing
pink diamond
House
Next Level Charli
Dying for You
Club classics
365
360
Sympathy is a knife
Von dutch
Roll With Me
Guess
If You Take Away the Music Then What Has She Got?
2007
Camera
party 4 u
Vroom Vroom
Playboy Bunny
Magic Metal Montana
SS26
No One Lasts Forever
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