Today, Charli XCX releases her seventh studio album, ‘Music, Fashion, Film,’ accompanied by a “film” screening in select theaters. The artist may have squeezed that slime-green lime for all it’s worth, catapulting herself from alternative favorite to international pop star, but two years after Brat Summer, Charli’s back to declare that the dance floor is dead. She’s shed the sunglasses and the electro-pop sheen; her new visuals are drained of color. She and her friends are making rock-esque music, using guitars, distortion, irony, and an approach to marketing that she’s calling “anti-marketing.” Despite the album’s artifice of pretension, its cinephilic references and cultural declarations, there’s a playful dashed-off feeling to the music itself. It’s helpful to remember this is just one of Charli’s many recent endeavors. So far this year, the artist has released a mockumentary-style film, ‘The Moment’; appeared in the low-key Euro drama ‘Erupcja’; written a song for ‘Mother Mary’; and recorded the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s fantastical retelling of ‘Wuthering Heights.’ The video for single “Camera” positions her in the director’s chair, while its lyrics reflect on the ecstatic danger of performance. Threaded through the album is an apocalyptic feeling, a recognition that nothing lasts forever, not even the art that is her lifeblood. Our writers Craig Jenkins, Jason P. Frank, and Cat Zhang dig into the new album. Sign up for The Critics newsletter to read their full conversation: nymag.visitlink.me/n70cpv