Pop’s reigning party girl reemerges as a restless poet, trading club classics for confined collapse.
Charli xcx’s second soundtrack album “Wuthering Heights” transpires like a descent into the shadows. Written for Emerald Fennell’s new film of the same name, the project comprises 12 tracks, totaling 35 minutes. The evocative album, released Feb. 13, corresponds with the film’s theatrical debut and serves as a stark departure from her previous album “BRAT.” Blending orchestral strings and modern electronica, Charli xcx reimagines Emily Brontë’s ruinous romance. Through this album, her career transitions from garish green to gothic gray.
Charli xcx’s “Wuthering Heights” brilliantly showcases her versatility after the cultural takeover of her last album. Many of her past hits, such as “360” and “I Love It,” conjure images of neon, rave-like strobe lights. In contrast, her newest project echoes the longing and terror found in locked, candlelit rooms. “Wuthering Heights” is another collaboration with Finn Keane, who also co-produced “BRAT.” Yet, the LP sonically mirrors her debut “True Romance” and 1960s rock artists more than her 2025 Album Of The Year-nominated record.
The album’s opening track and first single, “House,” features former Velvet Underground member John Cale, whose sonorous monologue comprises two-thirds of the track. As his initially conversational tone takes on a more ominous spirit, the track resembles a clamorous warning delivered as a poetic elegy. Sharp feedback, distorted vocals and creaking strings accompany this omen, with Charli xcx singing, “I think I’m gonna die in this house.”
The album’s second track “Wall of Sound” only sustains this tension. The singer pairs a guttural tone with swirls of strings as her words bathe in insecurity: “Tell me that you need me / You’re what keeps me breathing.” Phrases such as “unbelievable tension” and “unbelievable pressure” build on that continuous yearning, which flows into the next track.
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“Dying for You” retains that thread of confinement and simultaneously marks a sonic pivot. Its club-destined pulse cuts against lyrics defined by an aching heart. Across the album, this track stands nearest to “BRAT” in its production, even as its tragic visuals evoke the haunting romance of the English moors. This song is one of the album’s clearest gems, illustrating the dichotomy of devastation.
Throughout the record, escape is both a fantasy and an impossibility. “Always Everywhere” drifts like a celestial whisper – soft keys, romantic synths, echoes of calling a lover’s name across misty terrain. “Chains of Love” is the album’s most spectacular endeavor. Charli xcx continues to employ symbols of restraint as subtle strings and a synth bassline ground the lyrics. The melodic ballad carries the ’80s flavor of “True Romance,” which feels intentional but warped, as if nostalgia itself is just another cage.
“Open Up,” a track far below two minutes in length, functions as a lullaby interlude. It reinforces the sense that this is far from a mere album. Instead, the project is a score, characterized as fragmented, processional and forever unresolved. However, the middle stretch hints at areas of mild imperfection. Here, tracks lean heavily on production over lyrical quality. “Eyes of the World” is the album’s second feature, a duet with Sky Ferreira, who also appeared on Charli xcx’s 2019 self-titled album. Its relatively basic lyrics rely on the distorted vocals and impeccable sound design to sustain intrigue.
On other tracks such as “Seeing Things” and “Altars,” the songwriting falters significantly, though the mixing generally compensates. “One is not the loneliest number / Won’t keep putting all my faith in you / One is not the loneliest number / Got me turning far away from you / I’m at your altar, baby,” she sings. Though such lines lean toward being cringeworthy, the buildup of the backing drums and orchestral strings is satisfying.
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Still, the album’s cohesion is undeniable. Strings – violin, cello, bass – thread through screechy electronics. The mood evokes a restless winter morning, peering through a dew-covered window at misty moors. There is a distinctly Alfred Hitchcock-esque unease. Everything feels structured, controlled and perpetually on the edge of calamity.
The album nods toward Brontë’s main characters Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff – damaged hearts confined to cycles of lust and loss. Charli xcx’s LP tells a similar story of freedom imagined but never attained. Like Brontë’s novel, the project is underpinned by latent dread as the listener holds their breath.
“My Reminder,” the penultimate track, pairs electro-clash bass with unfiltered urgency. “Funny Mouth” ends on an unsettling note reminiscent of the album’s opener. As Charli xcx croons from the bottom of a bog, strings multiply in their fervor. “Everyone sleeps / And everyone wakes up,” she repeats on this closing track, leaving listeners to wonder whether this was simply a depiction of a nightmare: Is this new sound something from which the singer will simply wake up?
“Wuthering Heights” may not always dazzle lyrically, but, as a mood piece connecting her old sound to something more haunted it’s a striking triumph. More than a follow-up to “BRAT,” the album signifies a repositioning. It offers evidence that Charli xcx can weaponize both vulnerability and bravado and that sometimes the scariest place isn’t underground but the very house once believed to be escaped.
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