Of course, this is still going to be a Charli xcx album, so we shouldn’t expect it to sound like Iggy Pop, even if director Jim Jarmusch likens Charli to the punk in the profile. She does describe the new album as rock, “but what’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.” Writer Laura Snapes remarks that, from what Charli played her in February, much of the autotune is gone, which the new music focused on Charli’s voice and the guitar of frequent collaborator A.G. Cook. “We were doing our version of analogue, which is so silly and funny,” says Charli. “But putting it through our lens, and making sure that nothing felt too macho, was important.” She adds, “For me, it’s fun to flip the form. We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”
It’s not all that surprising that she has a new album coming—it’s been almost two years since Brat—nor that she’s dipping her toes in this genre. (2014’s Sucker plays in the pop-punk arena a bit.) But what’s more unclear is when the hell she had the time to do this. Charli was on the road with Brat from September 2024 until August 2025, and filmed roles in Erupcja, Faces Of Death, The Moment, I Want Your Sex, 100 Nights Of Hero, The Gallerist, and Overcompensating. She also created an entire soundtrack album for Wuthering Heights and wrote music for Anne Hathaway to sing in Mother Mary, and is in pre-production for a new Takashi Miike movie. More like 365 working girl!