Wuthering Heights is the upcoming second soundtrack album by British singer Charli XCX. Created for the upcoming film of the same name, it is scheduled to be released by Atlantic Records on 13 February 2026, the same day as the film's theatrical release. The album's first single, "House" featuring the Welsh musician John Cale, was released on 10 November 2025 and served as a significant departure from the sound of Charli's previous album, Brat (2024). The second single, "Chains of Love", followed on 13 November.
Work on the album began in December 2024, when the film's writer and director Emerald Fennell approached Charli XCX to compose a song for its soundtrack. Inspired by the screenplay, Charli wrote several songs with frequent collaborator Finn Keane and decided to make a full companion album for the film, which her and Keane recorded during the Brat Tour throughout 2025.
Background and composition
Throughout the release and touring for her 2024 album Brat, Charli XCX struggled with exhaustion and a lack of creative inspiration that made her feel like that she "wouldn't be able to make music anymore".[1] In December 2024, Emerald Fennell messaged Charli to record a song for her upcoming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.[2] Charli "immediately felt inspired" after reading Fennell's screenplay and worked on several tracks with frequent collaborator Finn Keane, later suggesting to Fennell that she create a full concept album for the film with songs that were "connected to the world [Fennell] was creating".[2][3] Describing the musical style of the album as an "elegant and brutal sound palette" that "couldn't be more different from Brat",[4] Charli wanted the album to reflect "a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, [and] British".[5] She created most of the album with Keane, with the pair writing and recording songs in rented studio spaces throughout 2025 while she was on the Brat Tour.[5]
While writing "House", Charli was inspired by Todd Haynes's 2021 documentary film The Velvet Underground, in which the Velvet Underground band member John Cale said that the group's songs needed to be "elegant and brutal". In mid-2024, she asked Cale for feedback on the music she had been working on for the album, and after taking an interest in "House", he recorded the spoken word poem featured in the song.[6] Noted for its noisy and distorted instrumentation, "House" was described as a gothic rock,[a]industrial rock,[2] and neoclassical dark wave song.[10][11] In his review of the song, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis called it "powerful, striking and rewarding", comparing it to the industrial music of Nine Inch Nails and saying that it "[bore] almost no relation in sound or mood to the contents of Brat".[12]
"Chains of Love", the album's second single, features synth-pop production accompanied by strings that more closely resembles Charli's past music.[13][14] Multiple publications felt that the song was stylistically similar to tracks on her debut album, True Romance (2013).[11][13][15]
Release
On 6 November 2025, Charli posted a short clip of a new song titled "House" featuring a spoken word poem by Welsh musician John Cale of the Velvet Underground.[2] The song was released as the album's lead single on 10 November, alongside a music video directed by Mitch Ryan.[6] The second single, "Chains of Love", was released on 13 November,[16] with a music video later released on 17 November.[17]
Critical reception
The album's lead single, "House", was highlighted as one of the best songs released that week by staff members at The Fader and Stereogum,[18][19] while the second single "Chains of Love" was featured in Rolling Stone's Songs You Need to Know.[20]
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