All 10 Charli XCX Albums, Ranked

The thing about Charli XCX is she’s inescapable, whether you’re into pop music, or into more alternative music, or somewhere in between. And once someone’s everywhere, there’s a risk that they might start being taken for granted, but Charli XCX has achieved a level of mainstream popularity while still feeling cool to most (you’ll never please all) people who lean a bit more toward the side of things once called hipster or indie.

That sense of being hard to define extends to her discography, because it’s hard to say what is or isn’t a Charli XCX album. There are studio albums below, though not her “first” album, 14, because it was never commercially released. There’s one soundtrack album counted below, but not the one for Bottoms, because that was credited to Charli XCX and Leo Birenberg. And there are also a couple of mixtapes counted as albums below, just because they feel whole and satisfying in the same way her albums do. For one more disclaimer, it’s hard to rank these. Most of Charli XCX’s albums are good, and good to similar extents, all the while having differing sounds and vibes. She’s eclectic, as an artist, and also very consistent, which goes some way toward explaining why she’s picked up so much momentum and an increasingly large fanbase over the past decade or so.

10

‘Crash’ (2022)

There was a sense of self-deprecation on Charli XCX’s part when it came to talking about Crash that never really sat right. Calling it a “major label sell-out” record might’ve been a joke, but it feels like acknowledging that the whole thing is inferior by her standards, and something being “deliberately trashy or lower-effort on purpose” is still going to run the risk of sounding trashier and lower-effort overall.

There’s also the notion of calling it Crash, which feels a bit on-the-nose and defensive, and the album just isn’t all that great. It’s also not terrible. It’s a decent album, and there are a couple of songs here that are fairly good. Like, funnily enough, “Good Ones” really is one of the good ones on the album. But Crash is disappointing by Charli XCX’s standards, and it’s not helped by being sandwiched between two of her most acclaimed albums (released in 2020 and 2024), and then her two albums from 2026 are a good deal more interesting and easier-to-revisit than Crash, too.

9

‘Sucker’ (2014)

Sucker is pretty good. It doesn’t have that great a reputation, and it is being ranked rather low here, but it’s an enjoyable album that deserves more attention than it gets. It speaks to the quality of Charli XCX’s discography that solid albums like this get buried under some of the bigger ones, but there are discographies where every album is worth at least a couple of listens, and Charli XCX’s is one of them.

To some extent, it’s a retread of the kind of thing found on her first “true” studio album, released in 2013, and just a little less punchy than that one, but still strong. “Boom Clap” is the big single from this one, and right up there among Charli XCX’s most popular 2010s songs, and there are a fair few other fun songs here, including the title track and the somewhat silly (yet still infectious) “Break the Rules.” It’s good pop. It’s not great, and there are later Charli XCX albums that are more admirable with the way they push certain boundaries, but good pop is still good pop, and Sucker still pops, so that’s good enough.

8

‘Charli’ (2019)

When an artist puts out a self-titled album that’s not their first album, it might be done as a way to suggest that it’s a new start, or something that’s “truly” representative of their sound and talents, and 2019’s Charli is almost a self-titled album. There were the early 2010s albums of hers, that were pop-heavy, and then the mid-2010s mixtapes (and SOPHIE collaborations) that were more experimental and popular among people with more alternative sensibilities, with Charli being an attempt to kind of bridge the gap.

It felt successful at the time, yet as the 2020s began, and Charli XCX continued to hit new heights, Charli feels a bit quaint now. There are albums she’s done since that sound a bit bolder while also being catchier, and more appealing on a pop front with the snappier songs and shorter album runtimes, because Charli does kind of overstay its welcome at a bit over 50 minutes. It is still good, but possibly a bit overrated, and the kind of thing that’s a slightly awkward middle ground between two (debatably) more interesting eras for this artist.

7

‘True Romance’ (2013)

This might seem bold, putting her first true studio album this high, but True Romance is surprisingly great. It’s a bit like how if you’re more familiar with later albums by The Beatles, you might go back a little further and listen to their debut, Please Please Me, knowing it’ll be a good deal simpler and therefore expecting it to be lesser. But then it’s like, oh, no, not really. It is simpler, but it’s also really good “simpler” music.

True Romance is fairly straightforward pop music, with a bit of an alternative or nostalgic feel to some songs because it harkens back to some sounds from the 1980s, though 80s-ish music had a bit of a resurgence in the 2010s anyway. This captures that kind of sound, or that sort of pop from such an era, honestly really well. Listened to now, well over a decade on from release, True Romance largely holds up a good deal better than you might expect.

6

‘Number 1 Angel’ (2017)

If 2019’s Charli is the one kind of overrated Charli XCX album, then 2017’s Number 1 Angel is probably her most underrated. Admittedly, it’s the kind of album you do have to be in the mood for, when listening to it, since it’s kind of one-note and a few of the songs sound pretty similar, but that one note is a great one (again, when you’re in the mood for it).

It was the first of Charli XCX’s two 2017 mixtapes, and the other was admittedly better and a little more polished. Still, Number 1 Angel has some real highlights, even if most of them are found on the album’s first half, like “Dreamer,” the infectious “Roll with Me” (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah), and the emotional “Emotional.” There is something about this mixtape that still feels special and unique, and even if it’s a little messy, it’s an endearing and catchy sort of messy. It’s a mess in a good way.

5

‘How I’m Feeling Now’ (2020)

Before there was a concept album about being a brat (it made sense in 2024, and will be gotten to shortly), Charli XCX made another direct concept album about how people were feeling in 2020 called How I’m Feeling Now. It’s not subtle, but it might well be one of the best pieces of art made during the whole lockdown era, as in exclusively worked on and then released during that time (rather than being a film, say, shot in 2018 or 2019, but not released until the early 2020s).

That thrown-together and kind of rough feel reflects earlier releases like the Number 1 Angel mixtape, to some extent, and the much-beloved Vroom Vroom EP. Shout-out to Vroom Vroom, by the way. It can’t be included as an album, for present purposes, but it is an excellent bite-sized collection of four very punchy and experimental (yet still poppy/catchy) songs. How I’m Feeling Now isn’t as resonant now, post-2020, but that’s arguably a good thing. It’s a difficult time to revisit, as was made clear by 2025’s Eddington, yet for the time, and specifically at that time, How I’m Feeling Now was rather perfect in its bluntness.

4

‘Music, Fashion, Film’ (2026)

Music, Fashion, Film sees Charli XCX making an indie rock album, more or less, meaning the opening song’s title, “Rock Music,” really isn’t the music equivalent of clickbait or anything. It’s more of a mission statement, but then it’s interesting what kind of “rock music” gets explored here, because Music, Fashion, Film has a bit of a punk rock thing going for it throughout, especially when it comes to the track lengths, with most hovering around the two-minute mark, or a little over.

Lyrically, it’s got some familiar topics for Charli XCX, but there are new emotions unpacked by tackling those subjects with this kind of music backing them. “Camera” is an especially strong song, and an absolute earworm, while the longest song here, closing track “No One Lasts Forever,” also leaves a mark, what with it being so downbeat and featuring – in a way that somehow works – David Cronenberg, of all people.

3

‘Wuthering Heights’ (2026)

2026 has been a great year for Charli XCX, a bit like how 2017 was also fruitful, owing to her releasing two great mixtapes that year. 2026 has seen the release of two albums that sound pretty different, though they’re each tied to films in one way or another. Music, Fashion, Film has that title, the David Cronenberg feature, and Martin Scorsese(!) on the album cover, while Wuthering Heights was indeed a soundtrack done by Charli XCX for the movie of the same name.

That movie was an interesting and perhaps over-hated adaptation of a classic book, but Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights was ultimately a stronger album than Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (and this is coming from someone who honestly thought that film was good). The music written for – and inspired by – the film is genuinely great, and Wuthering Heights works well enough as an album to feel worthy of being counted alongside – and compared to – Charli XCX’s other albums. Yes, it’s ranked pretty high, but in fairness, it really is pretty great.

2

‘Brat’ (2024)

The one that people might be sick of, to some extent, Brat might only be overplayed in the eyes (or ears?) of some because it was such a phenomenon. 2019’s Charli and 2022’s Crash felt like admirable attempts to appeal to mainstream sensibilities, but neither proved quite as good as Brat, and then Brat had timing on its side, hitting at just the right point in just the right year.

In 2023, it wouldn’t have had the same impact. The vibe shift in 2025 (come on, you know what that means) meant that Brat might’ve run hollow if it had been released halfway through that year. But summer 2024 was indeed Brat summer, the way 2023’s summer had been Barbenheimer, and then 2025’s summer was just defined by vaguely apocalyptic dread. It was nice to have that Brat summer, though. A Brat before the storm. And it still sounds pretty great in 2026, for what that’s worth.

1

‘Pop 2’ (2017)

Among mixtapes, Pop 2 is easily one of the best of all time, perhaps only exceeded in quality by the likes of The Weeknd’s House of Balloons and maybe Frank Ocean’s Nostalgia, Ultra. Both of those are good enough to compare with their respective artists’ proper/official studio albums, and that goes for Pop 2, too. This is 10 songs long, all those songs are good to great in terms of quality, and the mixtape runs for right on 40 minutes.

It’s an album. It’s being considered one here, at least, and it might well be the best batch of music Charli XCX has put out. The highlights are the opening (“Backseat”) and closing (“Track 10”) tracks, sure, yet everything in between is consistently strong, too. The production and sense of experimentation found on Number 1 Angel are present here, but with a higher level of overall quality and some even stronger songwriting. If you’re mad about Pop 2 being #1, just consider Brat as the top one instead. That one is, after all, technically her best “official” album.