Oscar award winning director, Emerald Finnell, tweeted that she would be adapting “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte into a movie on July 12, 2024. Over a year later, on Nov. 15, 2025, the anticipation grew as recording artist Charli XCX announced that she would create the film’s soundtrack, which would also be her seventh studio album.
Charli XCX’s hyper-electronic party-girl music was an unpredictable addition to the gothic, melodramatic ambience of “Wuthering Heights.” However, the album, which was released on Feb. 13, did the Victorian tale justice with Charli XCX’s lyricism and production, adding a modern spin to the classic story.
“House” featuring John Cale
The first single of this album threw off listeners. On the track, Cale, best known for his work with The Velvet Underground, delivers a deep, haunting vocal performance that compliments Charli XCX’s equally haunting tone. Both artists combine spoken word and warped vocal delivery, making the track highly experimental and cinematic, as what the film entails from the trailer. Despite the song being so different from Charli XCX’s discography, from her usual party songs. Fans enjoyed the track and started an internet meme from the chorus line “I think I’m gonna die in this house.”
“Wall of Sound”
Charli XCX’s implementation of orchestral elements in each track characterizes the entire album. “Wall of Sound” is one of these highly moody and orchestral pieces. The song takes the listener on an emotional journey as Charli XCX sings about longing for love, a concept that protagonist Catherine and her love interest Heathcliff exude in the movie. “’Cause every time I try / Talking myself backwards / Away from my desires / Something inside stops me” paints the image of the romantic challenges each character in the plot faces.
“Dying for You”
This next song is a very Charli XCX-esque track in comparison to the first tracks. The hyper-pop song opens with an immediate upbeat rhythm that gets the listener dancing. As Charli XCX signs “I was dying for you,” she illustrates the film’s plot while adding the electronic edge she is known for. This shift transforms the album’s opening gothic melancholy and subverts the expected traditional tone of Wuthering Heights as a story and movie. It is a refreshing taste of Charli XCX that loyal listeners will appreciate.
“Always Everywhere”
A romantic violin opening sets the song’s tone. Charli XCX exemplifies the romance of the lyrics, “On the hillside, shadows chase the dawn.” Her words are abrupt, then soft as the tempo changes, delivering sweet and memorable lines like “Still I hear your laughter tearing through the rain” and “Your name is carved where the wild winds have gone.” The melancholic and hypnotic violin is interrupted by Charli XCX’s techno-pop voice, producing high notes that get engulfed in the crescendo of the song. The clash of classical instruments with her pop vocals is an electrifying concept.
“Chains of Love”
“Chains of Love”, a highly emotional synth-pop track that makes you feel like running alone in a large field. It is a melodic song, opening with distant echoes. The lyrics compliment the spooky vibe of Wuthering Heights’s trailer , and Charli XCX’s orchestral, loud and semi-synth production makes the song a beautiful ballad. The chorus sings “The chains of love are cruel / I shouldn’t feel like a prisoner,” in a perfect way to describe deep feelings of longing.
“Out of Myself”
The song opens with violins that play in a very quick way to form a hyper beat, followed by a deep cello that makes it sound like a pop-rock song. Charli XCX has edge and angst as she sings “You take me out of myself,” as if she is holding someone accountable for their actions. An interesting twist from previous patterns of the album, from melodramatic and emotional lyrics, to almost a powerful pop anthem, Charli XCX keeps on surprising listeners.
“Open Up”
The song has a cold and echoic opening of Charli XCX faintly singing “open up” repeatedly under a synth vocal production, and an elegant violin arrangement in the background. In what unofficially serves as an interlude, the song continues to repeat the same lyrics through the calming tempo. The soothing track is a palate cleanser for the listener and provides insight into the question of what needs to be opened up. Charli XCX does a beautiful job of displaying the themes and storyline of Wuthering Heights through her own lyrics.
“Seeing Things”
The abrupt opening to a rough and rusty string arrangement, with a semi-spoken word intro and verse. By the pre-chorus, we get to hear Charli XCX’s voice and synth remedy. The chorus is unique in comparison to the production of the rest of the album, and even Charli XCX’s discography; it layers multiple voices as she sings “I think I’m seeing things that are / not there (See—, not there) / I think I’m seeing things / I think I’m seeing / shadows of your hair (See—, not there) / I think I’m seeing things,” both soothing and intriguing. Then, as the next verses and choruses proceed, her vocal production is slightly more intense. This song is a genius companion to the plot, because of the major conflict with the protagonist Catherine, and her undying love for Heathcliff which has a spiritual and paranormal presence. With that, the song brings back the haunting theme we see throughout the album.
“Altars”
Charli XCX channels pop beats as she creates a song with lyrics that are redundant and dismal, but sounds like a sophisticated synth-pop track. The syncopation is alluring, but overall, the song has no prominent buildup. Besides the change in her voice from soft to more upbeat at the lyric, “One is not the loneliest number.” The lyrics throughout the song lack emotional weight, and with a movie that navigates themes like toxicity and obsessive relationships, the shift towards surface-level lines undermines some clear objectives of the movie.
“Eyes of the World” featuring Sky Ferreira
Charli XCX and Ferreira return with another collaboration; the previous song they did together, Cross You Out, is a fan favorite for its intense and electronic production, temperament and emotional performances from both artists. The beginning is siren-like with very distressing and anxious vocals from Charli XCX, as Ferreira echoes her voice. When the chorus hits, it feels rather euphoric as Charli XCX belts “eyes of the world,” then matches vocals with Ferreira to make a stunning vocal arrangement as they harmonize together “the eyes of the world set me free.” Following the chorus, Ferreira sings the next two verses in the same rusty tone as Charli XCX did, complementing the strange lyrics of “No matter what I do, no matter what I say / You’re gonna think the things you think about me anyway / Put my flesh upon the cross until I scream.” However, the next chorus follows with a garage vocal production that ruins the trajectory and flow of the song; it was no longer ethereal or captivating.
“My Reminder”
Percussion begins the song, bringing in an unsettling mood. Behind Charli XCX’s vocals, harsh and daunting as they can be, the violin shines through clearly. The line, “A blood relation that I can’t outrun,” introduces the chorus as Charli XCX’s vocals become distorted and the beat of the drums compliments the electronic aspects of the song. Charli XCX’s voice is slowly more distorted, and the music becomes abrupt, alluding to the persona of “Catherine Earnshaw’s” mental illness she suffers in the plot. When connecting this song to Wuthering Heights, it fits just right
“Funny Mouth”
The final track opens with a flat and dense synth piano that plays along with Charli XCX’s synthesized voice. This track is particularly unsettling, but that aspect of the track is so important because it shows the diversity of Charli XCX’s production skills. The chorus hauntingly exits with the lyrics “Will we be alright? / Alright / Alright, ‘ight / Alright / Alright” into a very industrial and sci-fi-like production with violins again contrasting. That concept repeats until the end of the song, but the violin arrangement grows stronger and faster as the song cryptically exits with “Everyone sleeps (Everyone sleeps) / (Mm-mm, ah, mm-mm-mm-mm) / And everyone wakes up (Everyone wakes up)” repeated twice and scratching sounds. Charli XCX strategically placed this song as the album’s kicker, as it is ironic to the entire plot of Wuthering Heights and the movie. Both the plot and album experience emotional, brutal and existential feelings, and with the repetition of the logic that everyone sleeps and wakes up, it is simply the unexpected resolution of rationality, in comparison to the existential feelings in the album.
Charli XCX lived up to the story of Wuthering Heights with this album, but that might be this album’s biggest flaw. If a listener listened to the album without either reading the original novel by Emily Brontë, watching the many movie adaptations from the past, or tuning into the newest adaptation from Finnell, the lyrics are very hard to understand, which lends a jumbled storyline to the naked ear. There is a lack of context for the story and message being conveyed, and as that may be the point of a companion album and soundtrack, it still does not appeal to all listeners.
Despite all lyrical technicalities, coming from a musical and producing perspective, Charli XCX exceeds new expectations of musical experimentation. By combining classical music to represent the era of the old novel, with Charli XCX’s popular techno-pop style connecting to some of the modern renditions of the movie, it creates a thoroughly thought-out art piece. The woodwind instruments, percussion and syncopation all come together to lay the foundation for Charli XCX’s complex and impressive vocals and production.
Rating: 3.5/5
