Music, Fashion, Film2026

What I appreciated most about Music, Fashion, Film is how introspective it feels. There’s a contradiction running through so much of the album, almost like we’re hearing different sides of Charli existing at the same time. Confidence and insecurity. Ambition and fear. The person and the persona. The desire to be seen and the discomfort that comes with actually being seen.
And I think that contradiction is captured perfectly in the title itself. Music, fashion and film can all be consumed as pure escapism as something fun, glamorous and entertaining that we don’t necessarily have to think that deeply about. But those same things can also be incredibly personal, serious and meaningful. They shape how we see ourselves, how we express ourselves and sometimes even give us language for things we haven’t been able to articulate on our own.

Something can be entertainment and still carry enormous emotional weight.
That tension feels woven throughout the album. Charli seems interested in all these different versions of herself like the artist, the image, the public figure and the person underneath it all - without necessarily trying to tell us which one is the “real” Charli. Maybe they all are.

“Wink Wink” was easily my favorite at 4.5/5, and I think part of why it connected with me is that it lives right inside that tension. There’s something about Charli when she allows the confidence and performance to coexist with something more vulnerable underneath that really works for me. “SS26” and “Camera,” both 4/5, hit a similar sweet spot. They’re very aware of image, presentation and the world surrounding Charli, but they don’t feel empty because of it. The surface becomes part of what she’s examining.
Even some of the songs I liked less helped me understand what the album was trying to do. “I’m Afraid” (2.5) and “Magic Metal Montana” (2.0) didn’t connect with me nearly as strongly as individual tracks, but that almost highlights something interesting about my reaction to the record: I like Music, Fashion, Film more as a complete statement than I like every song that makes up that statement.
And maybe that’s why this album resonated with me. I’m drawn to introspective music, particularly when it acknowledges that human beings are messy and contradictory. We can be confident and insecure at the same time. We can desperately want to be seen and simultaneously want to hide. We can care deeply about things that are supposedly superficial. We can take ourselves incredibly seriously while also recognizing that sometimes none of this is that serious.
My individual track ratings average out to about 3.5/5, which honestly feels right. This isn’t an album where every song blew me away. But the songs that connected with me really connected, and the ideas behind the record stayed with me beyond the music itself.
Music, Fashion, Film feels like an album about what happens when your identity, your art and the version of yourself you give to the world all become tangled together and about accepting that perhaps the contradictions between those things aren’t something we need to resolve. Maybe being contradictory is part of being human.