New Music Reviews: Charli XCX, Slayyyter, Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske

A pop artist pretending to be rock, a pop artist who’s actually tough and abrasive, and an ambient/electronic/jazz LP/EP. Read on …

Charli XCX

Music, Fashion, Film

2026, 8/10
In a 2025 interview, Charlotte Aitchison discussed feeling “barren” after completing Brat and was considering concentrating on film. Instead, she has released two albums in 2026, following her Wuthering Heights soundtrack with Music, Fashion, Film. The cover features an icon from each sphere – John Cale represents music, Marc Jacobs fashion, and Martin Scorsese for film. It’s a succinct thirty minutes. It drifts toward slightness, but it works, typically tuneful and personal.

The lead single ‘Rock Music’ is a good microcosm for the album – it features rock guitars, but it’s identifiably Charli XCX’s pop music. And more than most of the album, it feels disposable but still sticks in your head. ‘SS26’ (shorthand for spring/summer 2026) mixes a catchy tune with nihilistic lyrics – “we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell/Nothing’s gonna save us not music fashion or film.” Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg adds some gravitas to the final track, ‘No One Last Forever’, closing the album with his monologue about a near-death experience.

Music, Fashion, Film could be perceived as slight, but there are enough great tunes and lyrics to make it work.

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Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske

At Source

2026, 7.5/10
Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer and musician. She’s written a thesis about Hindustani classical music and minimalism. Bendik Giske is a Norwegian saxophonist. Together, they find their common ground, colliding Barbieri’s precise synths with Giske’s exploratory saxophone.

Explores the liminality between the machine and the human, and the vulnerability in this process.

https://caterinabarbieri.bandcamp.com/album/at-source

The record sticks to a single sound palette, with the icy synths contrasting with the saxophone’s emotion. But there are memorable moments, especially towards the conclusion of each piece, as the saxophone becomes more intense. The pulsing repetition of the opening ‘Alignment, Orbits’ is a highlight, as is the pensive ‘Impatience, Magma’.

It’s hard to write about this music, but it’s gorgeous and emotive.

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Slayyyter

Wor$t Girl in America

2026, 6.5/10
Catherine Grace Garner spent years trying to break through as a pop artist. Frustrated at always being considered an “up-and-coming” artist, she made music for herself rather than trying to please a record label.

Wor$t Girl in America is raw and edgy for a pop record, with Slayyyter running her voice through an Auto-Tune filter. It’s full of hedonism – one memorable phrase is “I want sex, money, bitches, and the stickiest weed”. But it’s not always musically satisfying – it’s more about intensity and building a lyrical world than about great tunes.

There’s at least one excellent song. ‘Brittany Murphy’ is a tribute to the deceased actor, where Slayyyter effectively adds some tenderness – “make them all know I was great/’Til I crashed out, out.”

If you liked it, good news – she’s announced a brother album, titled Worst Man In America.

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• 2026 albums on my to-do list
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