I confess that from the get-go, Charli XCX's 'Music, Fashion, Film' rubbed me up the wrong way.
Not because I was desperate for 'Brat 2.0' or that anything but another era-defining follow-up would be dismissed as an disappointment. If anything, the thought of a new direction following one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the past five years was not only enticing but artistically necessary, as trying to recapture the zeitgeist in the same way would have seemed both foolish and desperate.
I just wasn't sold.
First, there was lead single 'Rock Music', featuring distorted guitars and some frankly terrible lyrics like “Me and my friends, we go out / We take pictures and make stuff together / And sometimes we cry / We kiss each other, real incestuous vibes” and “I think the dancefloor is dead / So now we’re making roooooock music”.
The self-awareness and sarcastic / meta humour weren't landing, and the phrase "real incestuous vibes" came off as a performative provocation that just felt desperately thirsty for attention.
