Everything is "Actually Romantic" in Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights

There’s really no way to follow up an album like Brat. Everyone is aware of the immense critical acclaim and fan appreciation it received, but beyond that, the movement it generated defined mid-2024 as “brat summer,” led to collaborations with artists such as Billie Eilish and Lorde, and even ended up as part of Kamala Harris’s marketing strategy in the 2024 presidential election. No one could have expected this from tracks such as “Apple” and “360”, which most people presumed would just end up as somewhat-niche electronic hits. This

level of attention boosted Charli far out of her usual electronic pop audience and into a much broader fanbase, leaving the world questioning what her next move would be.

A year and a half later, Charli made the surprising announcement that her next album would be a soundtrack for an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. As someone who has been a major fan of the Brontë sisters’ works since 2020, writing that sentence honestly pains me. Despite enjoying her music, I must admit that I was unhappy to have a Charli XCX soundtrack to this movie, as I could not imagine that the same person who wrote “Club Classics” would be able to properly

orchestrate the cosmically entwined souls that Brontë’s novel expertly portrays. I was surprised and impressed, then, when this album exceeded my expectations.

The highlights of this album are easily some of the best songs from Charli’s discography, combining the dance-pop synths of Brat with romantic string accompaniments. Charli manages to develop a balance between high- tempo songs that elucidate the sounds of Brat and tracks that create beautiful sonic landscapes, pushing her in a vastly different direction from her prior work. “Dying for You” and “Out of Myself” are standouts that both encapsulate pure yearning and could be played at a club. The dramatic beat and tension throughout the former reminds me of Charli’s mega-viral hit from this summer, “party 4 u,” which resurfaced from her 2020 album How I’m Feeling Now, while the latter is arguably the most fun and upbeat song on the whole album. "Wall of Sound” is a cinematic track that ascends past the usual plane of pop music with its incorporation of a string orchestra. “Always Everywhere” does the same while also highlighting Charli’s upper register, allowing her vocals to shine and creating a song nothing short of epic. However, my two favorites from this album, “Seeing Things” and “My Reminder,” are easily listenable songs for any occasion, given their outstanding lyricism and mix of both orchestral strings and electronic synths. Both tracks are pure pop perfection with lyrics that remind me of why I originally loved the novel Wuthering Heights: its elegantly tragic storytelling.

Image Credit: Charli XCX

However, all this is not to say that the album is free of flaws. “House” featuring John Cale is, at best, a funny Tiktok audio, with the lyric “I think I’m gonna die in this house.” At worst, it is something that I will avoid at all costs due to its unsettling nature and unnecessarily loud, grating distortion. While the fact that it is on a soundtrack album helps the listener forgive some of its issues, the song’s marketing as a single is baffling and misrepresents the rest of the album, making it the substantially worse feature on the album in contrast with

“Eyes of the World” featuring Sky Ferreira, a song whose distortion does not overpower its musical quality. “Altars” is another low point of the album. It is in no way offensive–just boring and droning, showing some of the downsides of Charli’s lower register, especially given the contrast shown by her upper register shining

through in “Always Everywhere.” Similarly, “Funny Mouth” has a run time of three minutes and 32 seconds, yet its repetitive nature makes it feel exponentially longer.

Overall, this album pleasantly surprised me, and, while it was maybe not the absolute best next step for Charli XCX following Brat, there could never be a perfect way to follow up such a cultural phenomenon. I hope that the discourse around the "Wuthering Heights" film does not cloud this album’s attention, as it should be

respected for the original work that it is and could successfully bridge Charli between “brat summer” and whatever her next era may be. I expect a heavy amount of marketing to come soon for the next non-soundtrack album, possibly further leaning into the lyricism and romantic production found on "Wuthering Heights" for her next project. Even as the accompaniment to a very scrutinized and controversial film, Charli’s

work still manages to shine, proving that her career did not, in fact, end with the massive commercial success of Brat.

Rating: INDY

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Alexis Wilson is a Freshman in the College planning on studying Government and possibly English.