Charli XCX has shared studio footage, as her collaborator reveals she’s working on a “really different and fresh” new album.
Following its release last year, ‘Brat‘ quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon, with the concept of ‘Brat’ summer even working its way into Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
Since then, Charli has declared the ‘Brat’ era over on multiple occasions, and now it seems a new one, featuring a drastic change in direction, is on the way.
Yesterday (October 5), she took to X to share a five-second clip from the studio. The audio features some horror soundtrack-esque strings building to a sharp crescendo before coming to a sudden halt.
It’s not clear if this is for the album, but the clip does come after Finn Keane, a producer who worked on ‘Brat’, gave an update on the record’s progress last Monday (September 29). Speaking to Music News at the BMI London Awards, he said: “We’re kinda deep in it now, and I think it’s gonna be really amazing… It feels really different and fresh at the moment.”
— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 5, 2025
Back in May, Charli hinted that she’s expecting her next album to go in a completely different direction, which could result in a “flop”, saying: “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.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve been told about what her next album could look like. In February, her producers A.G. Cook, Finn Keane and George Daniel – who is also Charli’s husband – teased that the follow-up is shaping up to be “anti-Brat”: “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.”
Shortly afterwards, she reflected on a potential end of ‘Brat’, saying: “It is really hard to let go of ‘Brat,’ and let go of this thing that is so inherently me, and become my entire life.”
‘Brat’ was named as the Album of the Year by NME, and awarded a four-star review that read: “It all paints a picture of who XCX is in 2024. Growing pains, grief and aching doubts come alongside self-confidence, celebration and the knowledge of the place XCX holds in the musical landscape – indeed, she kicks off ‘360’ with the knowing: “I went my own way and I made it / I’m your favourite reference baby”.
The subsequent remix album, ‘Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat‘, received five stars from NME, with Aneesa Ahmed writing: “In some ways, ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ is a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms.
“She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form.”
Charli XCX. CREDIT: Stolen Besos
Charli has provided the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and, outside of music, has taken on various acting projects lately. She’s starring in 100 Nights Of Hero, adapted from a graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg, the adventure-comedy Sacrifice alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans, Pete Ohs’ Erupcja, and the upcoming erotic thriller I Want Your Sex alongside Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman.
She’s also working on an upcoming new A24 film The Moment. Plot details are currently under wraps, but Deadline previously described the film as a “mockumentary” that “follows the life of a pop star in the lead-up to her first headline arena tour.
In other news, a new Taylor Swift track, ‘Actually Romantic’, is widely rumoured to be a diss track directed at Charli.
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