Charli XCX has unveiled a striking new single titled ‘Wall Of Sound’. You can hear it below.
Read More: Charli XCX – ‘Brat’ review: pop pioneer fully embraces the dancefloor
The song is the latest preview from Charli’s forthcoming album, created specifically for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The full project is due out on Friday February 13 and is currently available to pre order.
Until now, listeners have been given a taste of the album through ‘House’, which featured a collaboration with The Velvet Underground’s John Cale and leaned into an unsettling atmosphere, alongside the brooding gothic cut ‘Chains Of Love’.
With ‘Wall Of Sound’, Charli delivers a richly cinematic piece that leans heavily into mood and tension, opening with sweeping orchestral elements and raw, exposed vocals.
“Unbelievable tension/ Wall of sound/ No real reason and I can’t escape it,” she sings, her voice cutting through a chilling swirl of violins. Take a listen below.
The new screen version of Wuthering Heights is scheduled to arrive next month on February 13 and features Margot Robbie in the role of Catherine Earnshaw, with Jacob Elordi portraying Heathcliff.
These latest tracks follow Charli’s recent comments about feeling creatively drawn toward film rather than music, after describing herself as feeling “stuck, empty and barren” in the aftermath of her breakthrough album ‘Brat‘.
“[By the end of ‘Brat’] I sort of felt like I was squeezing blood from a stone, trying to get every last drop of liquid life out of an idea I had already been sat with for years prior,” she shared. “I still love [Brat], don’t get me wrong but I was itching to move on and was simultaneously frustrated that I was so depleted that I couldn’t.”
Back in May, she suggested that her next album outside of the Wuthering Heights project would move in a completely new direction, joking: “You can never really do the same thing twice and my next record will probably be a flop, which I’m down for to be honest.”
Then in February, her producers A.G. Cook, Finn Keane and George Daniel, who is also her husband, explained that the follow up was shaping up as something deliberately opposed to ‘Brat’, with Keane adding: “Some of the conversations we’re having and music we’ve been playing around with the last couple of months have been completely the opposite.”
More recently, Charli revealed that she has been “exploring a lot of stuff with strings” as part of the album’s sound.
Elsewhere, Charli’s upcoming mockumentary The Moment is due to arrive in UK cinemas on February 20.
The film will be released through A24 and focuses on the overwhelming reaction to her 2024 album ‘Brat’ and the tour that followed. Directed by Aidan Zamiri, it blends real footage from the live shows with scripted backstage moments.
Alongside Charli, the cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, Hailey Benton Gates, Jamie Demetriou, Kate Berlant and Rosanna Arquette, with a cameo appearance from Kylie Jenner.
NEWS
Celebrated playwright and comedian Ben Elton has approached Noel Gallagher about creating an “Oasis jukebox musical”.
The two recently crossed paths at the Queen Budapest premiere at London’s BFI Imax. During their conversation, the We Will Rock You writer expressed his interest in building a stage production around Oasis’ songs.
The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column reported that the guitarist laughed and pointed him towards his brother Liam, saying: “You better ask our kid.”
Someone close to Liam suggested casting the singer would be a challenge, claiming no actor could "match" his "swagger".
Built around Queen’s songs, We Will Rock You enjoyed an impressive run, becoming the Dominion Theatre’s longest running musical and earning a place among the West End’s longest running productions. It also received the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Popular Show.
Interest in Oasis remains enormous, with 11 million people signing up for the Oasis Live ’27 ticket ballot.
After the Live Forever band returned to touring last year for the first time in 16 years, their famous rivalry with Blur became the subject of a stage comedy.
In The Battle, Gavin and Stacey actor Mathew Horne portrayed Andy Ross, the Britpop music executive who found himself in the middle of one of British music’s most memorable feuds.
He said: “This play is right in the sweet spot of my teenage cultural experience. I’m thrilled to be exploring this iconic era in music on stage with such a talented creative team involved.”
The production revisited August 1995, when Blur and Oasis went head to head by releasing Country House and Roll With It on the same day, each hoping to reach Number One.
Blur secured the victory with sales of 274,000 copies, compared with 216,000 for Oasis.
That chart contest fuelled years of public jabs between members of both groups, although relations have become less hostile over time.
A UK tour had been planned for the production, but its remaining performances were cancelled following the Birmingham and Manchester engagements in February and March this year.
Oasis Live ’27 begins on May 21 at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, with 42 concerts scheduled, including a record six performances at Knebworth.
