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Charli XCX is teasing what fans can expect in her new era.
In a new cover story for British Vogue, the "Girl, So Confusing" singer explained that her upcoming eighth studio album will be a switch from the electropop dance stylings of her 2024 record Brat to a more rock-and-roll sound, with the outlet describing the project, made with frequent collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, as a "rock reinvention." This was evident in the lyrics of one song from the untitled album, temporarily labeled xcx8.
"I think the dance floor is dead," she sings. "So now we're making rock music."
While the new sound may be surprising to fans who were fully immersed in the cultural phenomenon of Brat Summer, Charli was ready for something new.
"If I'd made another album that felt more dance-leaning, it would have felt really hard, really sad," she said, adding of the rock genre, "but what's interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be."
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."
The confirmation of Charli's new album and its rock vibes comes after she broke her social media hiatus on Wednesday, nearly two months after mostly wiping both her official Instagram page and her alt account. She returned with a photo of her in the studio and the message "I like making things" as well as a voice memo sent to fans explaining that she has "been feeling so inspired."