Is Charli XCX primed to be the most vital new film composer?
2024 was undeniably the year of Brat. Not everyone will have memories of listening to ‘Break the Rules’ and ‘Famous’ as they scrolled through Tumblr a decade ago, nor will younger fans remember just how often ‘Boom Clap’ was played on the radio, but Charli XCX has always had her finger on the pop culture pulse.
She’s been ahead of the curve since she was a teenager, releasing her debut album, 14, just after she turned 15. While none of the songs are exactly on the level of ‘365’ or ‘Von dutch’, it’s not hard to tell you’re listening to the early workings of XCX’s mind, with dance-y, electro-pop instrumentals backing her deadpan vocals.
Once she blew up in the mainstream a few years later, she became the soundtrack to the lifestyles of internet-addicted teens before retreating to a slightly less accessible world of hyper-pop innovation, where glitching, abrasive sounds defined tracks like ‘pink diamond’. By the time Brat rolled around, though, there was no escaping XCX, with the album becoming a defining cultural artefact.
Over a year on from Brat summer and people still associate neon green with the album – a record that was even co-opted by Kamala Harris for her Presidential campaign. No one could ignore Brat, with its in-your-face singles about “living that life” and doing “a little line” at the club, the viral TikTok dances to ‘Apple’, and the endless clips of XCX strutting about the stage in her dark shades. It’s sleazy, sexy, party girl music – but not without the reminder that with all this partying comes moments of introspection, as demonstrated by tracks like the contemplative ‘I think about it all the time’ about motherhood.
So, what’s next for XCX? Well, it seems like she’s primed to become the hottest new film composer, with her upcoming score for Wuthering Heights set to be a full album’s worth of songs. It comes out in February 2026, but she has already released two tracks from it, including the hypnotic John Cale collaboration ‘House’. XCX is also credited as a composer on the upcoming David Lowery film Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway, set for release next year.
Wuthering Heights isn’t the first soundtrack album she’s made, though, having collaborated with Leo Birenberg on the score for Bottoms in 2023, which includes production from PC Music founder AG Cook. She’d already recorded ‘Hot Girl’ for another Rachel Sennott vehicle, Bodies Bodies Bodies, the previous year, but Bottoms became XCX’s first foray into making a full score, mainly focusing on instrumental cuts rather than pop tracks.
With Brat thus sandwiched between two film scores, it seems like XCX can’t keep away from Hollywood, mirroring her increasing presence on screen as an actor, too. XCX has recently been open about her love of cinema on social media by revealing her favourite movies on TikTok, often picking out some rather niche gems. Meanwhile, her acting career has seen her take on roles in upcoming movies like Erupcja, 100 Nights of Hero, and Sacrifice, and she’s even set to appear in the new Gregg Araki movie, I Want Your Sex, and an upcoming Takashi Miike film.
So, with her domination over pop music secured, is it now time for her to take over the cinema world, too? While her endeavours as an actor have divided some fans, her journey into film scoring can hardly be criticised, because if there’s one thing we need right now, it’s more female composers (how many can you actually name?), as well as more composers making genuinely interesting original songs.
There have certainly been some great soundtracks in recent years, don’t get me wrong – what about when Broadcast made the soundtrack for Berberian Sound Studio or when Air delivered the dreamiest record tinged with melancholy for Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides?. These records exist in distinctive worlds of their own, straying from traditional score conventions, and it’s this quality that XCX seems to harness, too. If ‘House’ – a haunting journey into abrasion and terror made in collaboration with the legendary Velvet Underground founder – tells us anything, it’s that XCX might just be a well-needed cinematic force to be reckoned with.
XCX’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack will certainly be more interesting than whatever Emerald Fennell seems to be doing with Emily Brontë’s precious novel, which has already received a middling reception from those who have seen early previews of the film. Perhaps XCX will even save the film from being completely unredeemable (but maybe I should hold judgment for now).
We can only hope that the Mother Mary soundtrack is as compelling as what XCX has delivered as a composer so far, and that it’ll lead her to more scores in the near future, because it looks like the pop icon, with her deeply experimental and rather unconventional roots as a musician, has exactly what is needed to bring something new and exciting to the world of film scoring.
