From Club Chaos to Romantic Gothic: What Charli XCX's New Album Wuthering Heights Turned Out to Be

The journey from chaotic BRAT to the hills of Yorkshire in Wuthering Heights.

Back in the summer of 2024, Charli XCX (Charlotte Emma Aitchison) topped the charts with her rave album BRAT, which became Rolling Stone's Album of the Year and earned two Grammy nominations.

But this year, ahead of Valentine's Day, the singer appeared at the premiere of Wuthering Heights in a delicate wedding dress, with a new album of the same name featuring violin and lyrics about love. What the artist is singing about now, and how her style has changed — read on in this DeTalks article.

Where the Idea Came From

Work began back during the BRAT remix tour. That's when Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell approached Charli with the idea of writing the soundtrack for her film adaptation of the novel.

While reading the script, the musician and her producer literally "fell in love" with the story.

She later described sinking into this reimagined world and suddenly feeling inspired — immersing herself in a story that wasn't her own, whose language felt like the total opposite of the world she'd been living in for the past two and a half years, and said she started to feel free again, the singer shared.

The performer's producer and co-writer, Finn Keane, explained that the contrast of working on gothic, brooding themes was a great departure point from the previous BRAT era.

He described being genuinely ready to make something completely different, not dance music, noting that Charli loves working with opposites and extremes, and that it felt like a truly exciting next step in her creative work, Finn shared.

From One Song to a Whole Album

Finn Keane recalled that they'd play shows, and whenever Charli had an hour or two free, they'd head to the studio or just work in a hotel room writing songs, he shared about creating the soundtrack.

Ahead of Valentine's Day, on February 13, 2026, the album Wuthering Heights was released alongside the film.

According to Finn, it started as something like a suggestion to record just one song, to which Charlotte responded that she wanted to record a whole album, since she loved the idea and felt truly inspired.

So, for the film adaptation, the musicians created 12 tracks, including both singles and collaborations with other artists. Together, the songs formed a complete soundtrack for the film, running roughly half an hour.

At the film's UK premiere, Charli said she was also inspired by artists like The Cure and Kate Bush, whose debut single became a No. 1 hit in the 1970s.

In a Substack post, the singer wrote that she wanted to immerse herself in a world that's unmistakably raw, gothic, British, full of anguish, and genuine sentences.

A Story Told Through Violin

The single 'House' was the first track to introduce Wuthering Heights to the world, released November 10, 2025, with a music video by Mitch Ryan. The video's aesthetic wrapped itself in gothic style, dark moonlit shots, and dramatic performances from its two singers.

John Cale, vocalist from the rock band The Velvet Underground, also joined in creating the track.

The artist said that while working on it, she kept returning to Cale's phrase that their music needed to be 'elegant and brutal.'

Charli later reached out to John himself to hear his thoughts on what she'd created. Eventually, the two collaborated on what became 'House.'

She recalled discussing the idea for a verse, that he recorded something and sent it to her — something only John could have done — and said she felt incredibly happy to have worked with him on the song, the singer recalled.

To create House's 'gothic feel,' the team recorded orchestral elements at Abbey Road Studios, but Finn Keane deliberately added a rougher touch:

He often plays a very cheap little violin that he doesn't actually know how to play, so those terrible, scratchy sounds you hear are him, not the amazing professionals they'd brought in, the musician shared.

Continuing the Gothic Aesthetic

'Chains of Love' became the second single and an introduction to the album's overall synth-pop sound. The track also featured in the official trailer for the modern adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel.

One reviewer described it as one of Charli's most emotional vocal performances, noting that even through layers of filters, her voice sounds wounded and raw as she sings 'I know the chains of love won't break' — as if it's Catherine answering the universe with a tired, stubborn heartbeat, wrote the reviewer for Not On Stage.

In the film, 'Wall of Sound' creates a claustrophobic effect and pulls viewers into a state of unease through the violin. 'Dying for You' continues the string-heavy aesthetic and soundtracks Cathy's climax with the lines 'You're a gun to my head... a noose round my neck.'

'Eyes of the World,' meanwhile, created together with musician Sky Ferreira, accompanies the film's ghostly scenes, while 'Funny Mouth' closes things out with the repeated line 'Everyone's asleep... and everyone's awake.'

The Album's Impact on the Charts and Its Audience

As The Guardian wrote, the singer's sharp stylistic shift is unlikely to alienate her fan base, who'd already responded to 'House' with 10 million streams.

Wuthering Heights topped the official vinyl albums chart, selling the most copies on wax of any release that week.

It joined her albums CRASH and BRAT on the list of Charli's chart-topping hits. That list compiles the UK's 100 best-selling artist albums of the week, put together by the Official Charts Company.

Reddit users also weighed in on the star's new release. The most popular positive reviews focused on how accurately the string arrangements and vocals captured the gothic aesthetic and atmosphere.

And while there were also comments about the songs not quite matching the film, the main issue people pointed to wasn't a misstep by Charli and her team, but a lack of skill on the part of director Emerald Fennell, who they felt failed to translate what the songs were about onto the screen.

About the Recent Controversy

Despite the album's popularity, XCX recently found herself at the center of a controversy at the afterparty for her film 'The Moment' in Berlin. The trouble stemmed from a party organized by Russian DJ Anastasiia Shevtsova (stage name Petlt), whose mother promotes propaganda in Ukraine's occupied territories.

Ukrainian activists had warned XCX's team beforehand, but photos and videos of Charli alongside Petlt spread online and disappointed her Ukrainian audience.

A few days later, the musician responded to it on Instagram Stories.

The post, translated, explained that neither she nor her team knew about any alleged connections tied to the Berlin party, and that she wanted to use the moment to say she stands against the crimes committed by Russian authorities in Ukraine and stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the singer wrote.

But on Ukrainian Threads, fans were outraged not just by the party itself, but by the apology too. They pointed out that referring specifically to 'Russian authorities' rather than Russians in general suggested she was trying to 'have it both ways.'

Still, some comments took the view that the performer at least responded and apologized the same way other musicians tend to in similar situations.

English-speaking Reddit users also shared their thoughts. Some users argued that the star's indifference to the situation was reflected in the fact that her film is still showing in Russia. Moreover, the performer is still following Russian bloggers and didn't say in her statement that she regretted the situation. Others, meanwhile, said the singer doesn't owe anyone anything.