Charli XCX has joined forces with Velvet Underground legend John Cale to create a surreal, dreamlike video for their collaborative track “House,” which will be featured on the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
The collaboration was inspired by Charli’s experience watching Todd Haynes’ 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground. “One thing that stuck with me was how John Cale described a key sonic requirement of the Velvet Underground,” she wrote in a note to fans. “That any song had to be both ‘elegant and brutal.’ I got really stuck on that phrase. I write it down on my notes app and would pull it up from time to time and think about what he meant.”
“When working on music for this film, ‘elegant and brutal’ was a phrase I kept coming back to,” she continued. “One day whilst on tour in Austin, Finn [Keane] and I went to the studio and wrote the bones for a song that would eventually become ‘House.’ When the summer ended I was still ruminating on John’s words. So I decided to reach out to him to get his opinion on the songs that his phrase had so deeply inspired, but also to see whether he might want to collaborate on any.”
After connecting on the phone, Charli sent Cale several tracks, including an early version of “House.” “We spoke about the idea of a poem,” she added. “He recorded something and sent it to me. Something that only John could do. And it was … well, it made me cry.”
The eerie video shows Charli and Cale together in a remote, isolated house, evoking the mood of a psychological horror film. Cale delivers a haunting spoken-word performance in the clip, reciting: “Can I speak to you privately for a moment. I just want to explain. Explain the circumstances I find myself in. What and who I really am. I’m a prisoner. To live for eternity.”
“House” is one of several songs Charli XCX has written for the Wuthering Heights soundtrack. The project began about a year ago when Emerald Fennell approached her to contribute a song for the film, which stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.
“I read the script and immediately felt inspired, so Finn Keane and I began working on not just one but many songs that we felt connected to the world she was creating,” Charli wrote. “After being so in the depths of my previous album I was excited to escape into something entirely new, entirely opposite. When I think of Wuthering Heights I think of many things. I think of passion and pain. I think of England. I think of the Moors, I think of the mud and the cold. I think of determination and grit.”
The Wuthering Heights soundtrack is just one of several creative projects Charli XCX currently has in motion. She is also set to appear in Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero, Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice, and Pete Ohs’ Erupcja.
