If you’re Charli XCX, how do you follow up the 2024 electro-pop phenomenon Brat? (And the hedonistic Brat Summer, for that matter?) You pen the soundtrack to a movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights—and collaborate with John Cale in the process—and indulge your alternative side with a new studio album, Music, Fashion, Film.

This full-length has less polish than Brat and is heavy on guitars rather than synthesisers, both of which suit Charli well. “SS26” is genial indie pop with smouldering guitars while “Camera” echoes the lilting, corrugated dream rock of The 1975. Better still is the propulsive “Wink Wink,” which combines buoyant ’80s post-punk vibes with a gritty spoken-word section. And “Card Declined” is three songs in one: a smoggy industrial/post-punk churn with greyscale rhythms; psychedelic pop with disorienting synths and effects; and sugar-sweet alt-pop.