Somehow it feels unbelievable to say that brat came out nearly two whole years ago. How is that even possible? Maybe because we’ve been living out the brat summer philosophy through a subsequent Laneway headlining tour from Charli and now, again, through A24’s The Moment mockumentary concert film. But here we are – properly and finally staring into the abyss of the end of the era. Luckily for us, Charli XCX is never one to leave us high and dry – we of course were blessed with her Wuthering Heights album soundtrack, and she’s already confirmed she’s close to finishing her eighth solo studio album.
Here’s absolutely everything we internet sleuths know so far…
She told Billboard that she’s nearly finished the album
Billboard this month ran a story on the Sky Ferreira x Charli situation (you can read this article for the full details), stating the following in print: “Charli has yet to reply, and her team confirms she is currently in Kyoto filming a movie and finishing her forthcoming new studio album.”
It’s likely going to sound the opposite of brat
Brat’s co-writer and co-producer Finn Keane spoke to Billboard last year to say that the new album’s direction could be intentionally very “anti-brat“.
Keane said there was a desire from Charli to “do the complete opposite thing again, which is very in keeping with her ethos. Some of the conversations we’re having and music we’ve been playing around with the last couple of months have been completely the opposite [of brat]. I love that spirit. It’s the iconoclastic impulse to rebuild something completely different, to show that you actually could do this other thing.”
Keane then added: “I doubt that’ll stick, but that’s been a really interesting thing to observe and makes me very optimistic and excited about [what’s next].”
When hinting at her own musical direction going forward, Charli last year told Rolling Stone that: “you can never really do the same thing twice and my next record will probably be a flop, which I’m down for to be honest.”
She’s pretty busy acting this year, so it might not be released for a while
Charli recently told NME that she was “currently feeling more inspired by film than by music” after being left “stuck, empty and barren” after brat, and she certainly has a slew of films lined up to film this year. She’s currently on location in Kyoto filming with legendary Japanese auteur Takashi Miike for an as-yet untitled slasher film. She’s also queued up for the star-studded satirical-action film courtesy of Roman Gavras called Sacrifice. The first reviews of her remake of John Alan Schwartz’s 1978 horror film Faces of Death are in too (and so far they’re great). The list goes on and on.
Essentially, this means we’re unlikley to be seeing any imminent world tours or heavy promotion of an album the likes of brat saw. At least not while she’ll be committing most of the next two years to her film star era. (And we all know she’s a big film lover over on Letterboxd).
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