Charli XCX collaborates with John Cale of The Velvet Underground on a haunting new song titled 'House.'

      Charli XCX has made a comeback with 'House', a striking departure from her ‘BRAT’ era, teaming up with John Cale of The Velvet Underground to create a dissonant, strings-driven Gothic piece. This track serves as our first glimpse of Charli's soundtrack for Wuthering Heights, composed for Emerald Fennell’s eagerly awaited film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s timeless novel. Reflecting on how this collaboration came to be, Charli revealed: “Last Christmas, Emerald Fennell contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a song for her version of Wuthering Heights. After reading the script, I felt an instant spark of inspiration, leading Finn Keane and me to create not just one but several songs that resonated with the universe she was crafting.

      “Having been deeply immersed in my previous album, I was eager to dive into something completely fresh and contrasting. When I think of Wuthering Heights, various images come to mind: passion and pain, England, the Moors, the mud and chill, determination, and resilience.” Regarding her collaboration with John Cale, Charli expressed that she found his belief—that every Velvet Underground song needed to be both “elegant and brutal”—to be particularly inspiring. She remarked, “That phrase really stuck with me. I noted it in my app and would revisit it to ponder its meaning.

      As I created music for this film, I kept coming back to ‘elegant and brutal’. Even as summer came to a close, John's words lingered with me, prompting me to reach out to him for his insights on the songs that had been so profoundly influenced by his phrase, and to see if he might be interested in collaborating.

      We connected, had a phone conversation, and wow… that voice, so elegant yet so brutal. I shared some songs with him, and we particularly focused on 'House'. We discussed the concept of it being a poem. He recorded something and sent it over—something only John could produce. And it was… well, it brought me to tears.” Check out the Mitch Ryan-directed video for 'House' below.

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