Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights arrived Friday (Feb. 13), the same day Emerald Fennell’s film adaptation opened in theaters, and it sounds nothing like Brat. The 12-song album is a full concept record, not a loose soundtrack, and it closes on a reunion: Sky Ferreira joins her on “Eyes of the World.”
Charli has been open about where it came from. According to Clash, she was exhausted and short on ideas, feeling like she “wouldn’t be able to make music anymore,” when the invitation came, but reading Fennell’s screenplay left her “immediately” inspired. She built the songs with her longtime collaborator Finn Keane, and on Substack she called the palette “elegant and brutal” and “a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, [and] British.” She also told fans on X that it is “100% a sister of” her 2013 album True Romance.
The FADER heard “an orchestral anthem” on “Eyes of the World,” and Ferreira’s second verse carries the pain of a chaotic love: “I let the fire rush straight to my head / Sabotage to prove I meant what I said.” It is the first time they’ve worked together since “Cross You Out” on 2019’s Charli, and one of very few Ferreira appearances in more than a decade. Lead single “House” features spoken word from The Velvet Underground’s John Cale, while “Chains of Love” drifts into the synth-pop lane of True Romance. Joe Keery, who records as DJO, co-wrote “Funny Mouth,” Clash reported.
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It also lands in the middle of a busy week for her. On Feb. 10, the first trailer arrived for Erupcja, Pete Ohs’ drama about a couple whose trip to Poland is extended by a volcanic eruption, which opens April 17. Pitchfork noted she also stars in The Moment, Aidan Zamiri’s mockumentary about her Brat summer, which premiered at Sundance last month.
And her film slate keeps growing. Billboard, citing Deadline, reported that she will play a woman possessed by a violent, tortured spirit in a slasher film from director Takashi Miike, due to begin shooting in Japan next month. Charli is producing through her studio365 banner, and the plot grew from an idea she and Miike came up with together.
Whether any of it makes the stage is a live question for summer: in March, Lollapalooza named her a 2026 headliner. The album is also on our February best-new-music list.
Wuthering HeightsCharli xcxListen on Apple Music
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
