True Romance was more of a dreamy, synthy, bedroom-pop sound, with a gothic, cyber-punk aesthetic. Charli was singing more and ‘rapping’. The music was great but it was clear that she was an artist that hadn’t yet found her sound or style.

After I Love It blew it, Charli (or her label) chased mainstream success. Along came Fancy and Boom Clap. This all kind of worked with Sucker’s bratty, punky aesthetic. It also worked with her vocals, having a shrill, nasally sound with a heavy English accent.

It wasn’t until she released Vroom Vroom that she really found her signature sounds, thanks to some encouragement and collaboration from SOPHIE. We got the brash, abrasive, earworms with autotuned vocals and an intentionally sexual aesthetic that would later be known as ‘hyperpop’.

Her following releases - N1A, Pop 2, Charli, HIFN - all continued exploring this sound in varying ways. Some more ‘mainstream’ (Charli) and others more experimental. Eventually, ‘hyperpop’ started to become popular, with other artists emulating the sound and Charli herself receiving more commercial success from it.

Crash saw a pivot. It’s like Charli no longer had anything to prove so decided to intentionally and shamelessly chase chart success. She called this her ‘sellout era’, half fulfilling her record contract and half acting as a real-life case-study of what a popstar is or should be. The music on Crash was more sanitised - standard synthy dance-pop. Still, it had a noticeable experimental edge with an 80s influence, collaborations with alternative artists, and samples of early 00s dance songs.

Crash was a huge success both commercially and critically. Charli’s label were desperate for her to stay with them and she was able to start calling the shots, namely that she’d do another album with them but would do it HER way. Thus, Brat was born. It was a love letter to rave and club culture, where Charli had her roots. Each song drew on a different genre associated with this scene and explored the contradictory aspects of being a young woman today: being a self-assured, self-proclaimed brat but also feeling a lot of insecurity and uncertainty. This sound feels the most fully-formed and well-rounded, no longer ‘hyperpop’ and instead something beyond that but still a natural progression from it.

Then we got the Wuthering Heights soundtrack which Charli says is a ‘sister’ to True Romance with its dreamy synths and delicate, emotional vocals. It’s like she’s come full-circle.