Charli XCX pivots to rock

Charli XCX said her next album will be a rock record, ending the club-heavy sound that powered *Brat*. (vogue.co.uk) (nme.com) In a new British Vogue cover story published April 16, 2026, Charli said, “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we’re making rock music,” and described the project as her eighth album. (vogue.co.uk) (consequence.net) Yahoo’s write-up of the Vogue interview said the untitled record was made with *Brat* producers A. G. Cook and Finn Keane, but swaps dance beats and Auto-Tune for guitars and a more exposed vocal. (yahoo.com) (au.lifestyle.yahoo.com) The turn comes less than two years after *Brat* arrived on June 7, 2024, through Atlantic Records and pushed Charli’s club-pop sound into the mainstream. (officialcharts.com) (discogs.com) That album kept winning into 2025: the Recording Academy featured Charli as one of the night’s most-nominated artists at the 2025 Grammy Awards, and the BRIT Awards gave *BRAT* Album of the Year on March 1, 2025. (grammy.com) (brits.co.uk) Charli had already signaled that a direct sequel to *Brat* was unlikely. In a Billboard interview published in May 2025, she said the album after *Brat* would “probably be a flop,” framing the next move as a break from expectations built by her biggest commercial moment. (billboard.com) The Vogue profile lands during a stretch when Charli has also been expanding into film. A24’s page for *The Moment*, released in 2026, credits the movie to an original idea by Charli and stars her as a pop singer preparing for an arena tour. (a24films.com) (imdb.com) For now, Charli has not announced a release date, track list, or lead single for the new album. What she has done is draw a line under the *Brat* era and point the next one toward rock. (consequence.net) (independent.co.uk)