REVIEW: All I Know Is How It Makes Me Feel: Charli XCX's Music, Fashion, Film Tour Rocks Out at State Farm Arena
The tour affirms everyone's favorite former bad girl's status as an artist's artist
When you make it to the top of the world, where can you possibly go from there?
From 2024 to 2025, hyperpop phenom Charli XCX rode the high of “brat Summer,” a culture-shifting season celebrating the lime-green album that infiltrated the ears of critics and wannabe bad girls everywhere (myself, unabashedly included). The singer officially announced the end of the era during her 2025 Coachella performance, with further farewells entailing a burning brat curtain at Glastonbury and A24 mockumentary The Moment, a sensationalized yet introspective account of the project’s overnight success.
Thus, the world began chanting the single most dangerous phrase an artist can hear: We can’t wait to see what you do next. It’s a tragedy—for lack of a less melodramatic term—when creatives are expected to “do that thing” over and over again, leaving them endlessly striving to replicate the magic of what once was.
With Music, Fashion, Film—both the album and its subsequent tour—Charli proved that she’s more than a one-trick pony. She’s a rockstar.
Affectionately known as the mff tour, the show arrived in Atlanta last Tuesday to a power-packed, sold-out sea of torn white t-shirts (the official dress code of the soiree, per the singer). Fans poured into State Farm Arena, buzzing with excitement for what Charli’s return had in store.
If Charli XCX is the queen of hyperpop, opener underscores is its princess. The 26-year-old producer has made a name for herself in the digital space with high-energy hits. In the most complimentary manner possible, underscores’ performance was a 2000s iTunes commercial come to life, complete with dancing silhouettes and a vibrant gallery of headphones flashing across the screen. “The Peace” particularly excited fans, as the track has been taking off on social media, but I was most impressed by her enthusiastic choreography on “Do It.” In addition to her production prowess, underscores’ enchanting stage presence is a sure sign of a star in the making.
Later in the evening, Charli took the stage accompanied by a full band of shaggy-haired, Rolling Stones-esque dudes who perfectly embody the space she’s trying to enter with this project. The set opened with “Rock Music,” the album’s headline-making lead single that declares “the dancefloor is dead,” before segueing into headbanger “Yeah.” The singer made her way up and down the multi-level stage, from the massive Doc Brown-style amp during “party 4 u” all the way to a catwalk filled with backup dancers during “360.”
When I attended the advance listening party for Music, Fashion, Film in July, I kept having the same thought over and over: this is the work of an artist’s artist. The album is an homage to the art forms in its title, complete with an iconic cover featuring legends Martin Scorsese, Marc Jacobs, and John Cale. In a world of poseurs and performative tastes, it’s easy for critics to claim this as a bit or a marketing ploy, but make no mistake: Charli is a student of the craft. One look at her leaked Letterboxd will tell you that she’s well-versed in world of Cronenberg and other cinematic references in the album’s visuals, and there’s a distinctly avant-garde, near-punk sensibility to the sonic elements here. I mean, is “Card Declined” not the prime example of a totally-nonsensical-but-also-totally-deep 1960s art rock track?
Of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without a sampling of hits from her discography. brat made its eternal presence known with tracks like “Sympathy is a knife” and “Von Dutch,” and we even heard two tracks from the Charli-helmed Wuthering Heights soundtrack. Charli has sprinkled in a surprise song at each stop, and she introduced the night’s track as one that lots of Atlanta fans had been begging for: “anthems.” Fans understandably freaked out at the fact that their city received arguably the most-coveted surprise song thus far—I’m not saying Atlanta is Charli’s favorite, but...
From her smoke break during “2007” to an XCX-branded underwear explosion during “Guess,” Charli’s spectacle showmanship is slowly but surely landing her a place in the legion of her rock and roll heroes. There’s a song on Music, Fashion, Film called “Camera” about the singer’s venture into the world of acting. It’s a love letter to the all-consuming experience of finding an art form you absolutely adore. It’s far more than a hobby or career; it’s almost an act of religious devotion. On the hook, Charli sings a simple phrase that summarizes her revelation: “All I know is how it makes me feel.”
In the grand scheme of pop culture, it’s hard to say if Music, Fashion, Film will ever surpass the mammoth that was brat. But, what I can assuredly say about this era is how it makes me feel—and it makes me feel like I’m witnessing an artist step into something sacred. Without sounding superstitious, I have a hunch that this tour may alter the direction of Charli XCX’s career forever, gifting her the total freedom to lean into every facet of her creative passions—with the patron saints of music, fashion, and film guiding her on this pilgrimage.
