After coming off of the smash success of Brat—and promptly following it up with an album to accompany Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights—Charli XCX is going in a completely different direction for her eighth studio album.In an April 16 interview with British Vogue, the pop star said, “I think the dance floor is dead…so now we’re making rock music.” She added, “For me, it’s fun to flip the form. We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”Joseph Okpako//Getty ImagesCharli’s rock album reveal came after she recently updated her Spotify bio page, writing, “I feel so lucky that I feel so inspired. If you feel inspired then you’re lucky too. But if you don’t feel it right now, that’s okay. Because one day you’ll feel it, and when you do, you’ll feel like you’ve been let in on the best secret in the world. And then it will fade away again.”Here’s everything we know about Charli’s next album so far.What themes will the album explore?Unlike Brat, which features several references to her husband, George Daniel of The 1975, Charli explained that her new project will not contain as many direct mentions of him in her songs.“I don’t really want to write songs about my husband forever,” she told British Vogue. “I’m not sure how interesting that is, and he knows that. If I write about our relationship, I’m probably only really interested in writing about some of the more obscure feelings of being married.”Her main objective for the album is to comment “on how I interact with the joint main love of my life outside of George,” which is art. The project will explore her relationship to art “and what would happen if that was taken from me. How I would have no purpose, and how for good or bad, art does provide me with purpose in my life.”What will the album sound like?Charli is working with producer A.G. Cook on the project. Instead of embracing Auto-Tune like she has on her previous albums, the pair insisted on “preserving a rough demo-like quality to her voice” and are working with guitars this time around.“We were doing our version of analogue, which is so silly and funny,” she told the magazine. “But putting it through our lens, and making sure that nothing felt too macho, was important.”British Vogue wrote that one of the tracks on the album featured “tough guitar against a sweet vocal chant,” and Charli singing, “I can take you to heaven like it’s 2007 / Pop star in my bedroom like it’s 2007.”Of the song, Charli said, “It’s about how everybody can have their own moment of fabulousness all through their phone in 15 seconds…It’s sort of the ultimate screen test.”The outlet described a second track as being “scuffed” and “sweetly melancholy.” Its lyrics include, “Nothing’s gonna last forever / And no one’s gonna last forever,” which she wrote about life feeling finite.Has Charli shared a look at her recording process?Yes. On her second Instagram page, @b.sides, she shared black-and-white photos of her in the studio with producers in 2025.“Me alex and finn in paris @ rue boyer last year. spent 10 days recording here. Aidan and alaska came. Alex dj’d the mcqueen show. Played some songs for some friends at the studio. Went to the cinema. Had lots of steak frites. felt really inspired,” she captioned the post.View full post on InstagramThis post will be updated.