Of the three creative pursuits that give Charli XCX’s eighth album its title, the English pop star seems least interested in the first. She admits as much on ‘Camera’, the best song on Music, Fashion, Film, which makes clear her obsession with acting and a desire to pursue it more fully. ‘Do I want to make music?’ she asks herself. ‘Am I being fucking stupid if I try to be a girl on the screen and I’m turning 34?’

Even without this clue – which, like much of the album, is presented via the singer throwing out rhetorical spiel more or less unexpurgated – it is no great stretch to surmise that the pursuit of making music is struggling to fully hold her attention.

Burnham and Powell want to bring back stupid

Does Lucy Powell really think ‘knight’ is an obscure word?

Watch: Polanski’s Newsnight car crash 

The follow-up to Brat, which made Charlotte Aitchison a global star in 2024 and instigated the entirely tiresome ‘Brat summer’ aesthetic, clocks in at a skimpy 30 minutes. A generous take is that the album was knocked out in the spirit of carefree spontaneity, perhaps in a conscious attempt to bypass the pressure of living up to such a huge hit. A........

© The Spectator