Charli XCX released her latest album Wuthering Heights on Feb. 13, which serves as both the main soundtrack behind filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s new film Wuthering Heights as well as Charli XCX’s personal creative project.
The new album uniquely centers a gothic theme deviating from her characteristic hyperpop genre as heard in most of her previous work. It features elements of classical music, industrial sound, and spoken word.
The album has twelve original songs: “House,” “Wall of Sound,” “Dying for You,” “Always Everywhere,” “Chains of Love,” “Out of Myself,” “Open Up,” “Seeing Things,” “Altars,” “Eyes of the World,” “My Reminder,” “Funny Mouth.” It contains features from multiple other artists, including Sky Ferreira and The Velvet Underground’s John Cale.
The album opens with “House,” an intense and atmospheric track. “House” is an encapsulation of Charli XCX’s alternative vision with this album, as well as other tracks such as “Dying for You,” which find her singing about losing gallons of blood, laying down on the road, and setting herself on fire. The shift in creative direction is apparent throughout the entire album.
Charli XCX is one of the biggest musical artists of the 21st century, with countless awards, charting songs, and number-one albums, including Crash (2022). Wuthering Heights is the follow-up to her sixth studio album Brat (2024), which had a heavy club sound and won three Grammys and seven nominations. In addition to its critical acclaim, Brat became a pop sensation, being used in online trends such as “Brat summer,” in which internet users embraced the album’s carefree message, lime green branding, and messy aesthetic.
Junior Jaden Mekede, listener and fan of Charli XCX since 2020, shared his thoughts on Wuthering Heights’ change from Charli XCX’s usual dance-electronic style.
“I like it. I think it fits the point that she’s in now. I feel like we dive a bit more into her as a person. Her vibe as of right now, it’s deeper, it’s more sensual, it’s more mellow,” said Mekede.
Several songs on Wuthering Heights have gone viral on social media, even prior to the album’s release. In particular, “House” attracted many social media users with its dark chords and lyrics.
“It’s just a lot more fleshed out, like it has a bit of gravitas. I feel like she really ran a tight ship [with this album],” said Mekede.
Emerald Fennell, director of Saltburn (2023) and The Crown (2016), released her film Wuthering Heights on Feb. 13 2026. The film is loosely inspired by the 1847 novel by Emily Bronte. Charli XCX began working on the album with Fennell in Dec. 2024 for the film’s soundtrack, then developed it further as a personal endeavor. Both the film, which made a $35 million box office debut, and the album were met with praise and criticism. The album’s performance as a soundtrack versus a creative body of work also elicited differing reactions.
Pomona College sophomore and Media Studies major Taylor Calonzo voiced her opinion on the album.
“The soundtrack feels overly literal in the context of the film, as if cueing the audience to feel a certain emotion rather than moving them naturally. I rolled my eyes through the entire ‘Chains of Love’ montage,” said Calonzo.
Although Charli XCX provided the promised raw, cinematic mood with Wuthering Heights, its standing compared to Brat is debatable in terms of both chart performance and content. Brat had higher initial streaming numbers, reaching 75.4 million versus Wuthering Heights’ 49 million.
“Between this more gothic sound and hyperpop, I definitely prefer Charli’s hyperpop work,” said Calonzo. “There are a lot of fun tracks on Wuthering Heights, but none on par with Brat.”
Despite his overall positive review of the new album, Mekede concurred on this point.
“[Wuthering Heights] is meant to be listened to, there’s weight to it, but I don’t feel as though it holds the same demeanor as Brat or her Vroom album or certain other albums that I feel like hold such deepness,” said Mekede.
