Charli XCX winks at the camera and makes the rollout feel dangerous again

Charli XCX drops Wink Wink on 26 June and, with only an hour of warning, turns the release into the kind of fast-moving pop event that still feels slightly illegal in the algorithm age. The song is the third preview of Music, Fashion, Film after Rock Music and SS26, and the Aidan Zamiri-directed video gives it a wonderfully slippery visual frame: strawberries in a field, windows being washed, rooftops being invaded and Charli insisting she is not a bad girl anymore while looking exactly like someone who knows the opposite is more interesting. The upcoming album is out 24 July via Atlantic, and Charli has already denied that it is a rock album, even if the rollout keeps borrowing rock-adjacent attitude, fashion mythology and film-world spectacle. Wink Wink works because it treats pop not as polished obedience, but as a performance of mischief with a very good lighting budget.

Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-charli-xcx-let-loose-in-video-for-new-song-wink-wink/