Charli xcx reaches new heights — and not the wuthering kind — in the music video for her new song, “Chains of Love,” pulling off a number of gravity-defying stunts from way high up.
The monochromatic visual posted Monday (Nov. 17) finds Charli in a white dress and boots, dancing atop a large white dining table in a luxurious hall. Flipping her hair and writhing around in pain and ecstasy, the singer dodges plates and cutlery that fly at her face while battling mysterious, paranormal forces that throw her around. At one point, the long table tips over, forcing her to hang on for dear life while suspended many feet in the air.
“Shattering like glass/ Yes, they’re breaking up my heart/ The chains of love are cruel,” she sings. “I shouldn’t feel like a prisoner/ My face is turning blue/ I can’t breathe without you here.”
Following “House,” “Chains of Love” marks the second song and video Charli has created for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights film adaptation. Sharing a clip of the new visual on Instagram, the musician gushed of the partnership, “I’m here so permanently…”
Charli’s work on Wuthering Heights will eventually culminate in a full concept album of the same name, which will drop one day before the film’s premiere on Valentine’s Day next year. The adaptation stars Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and Margot Robbie as Catherine, the two star-crossed lovers from Emily Brontë’s classic gothic romance.
“Chains of Love” dropped a few days prior to its musical video and soundtracked the first proper trailer for Fennell’s film.
In a recent post on Substack, Charli explained that she’s been loving immersing herself in the world of Wuthering Heights as a musical release, rather than focusing at all on topping the success of her 2024 breakout album Brat. “I wanted to dive into persona, into a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, British, tortured and full of actual real sentences, punctuation and grammar,” she wrote. “Without a cigarette or a pair of sunglasses in sight, it was all totally other from the life I was currently living.”
“This collection of songs is an album, and sure, my name’s on the credits, but is it a Charli xcx album?” she added at the time. “I don’t even know. Nor do I really care to find out.”
Watch Charli’s new music video for “Chains of Love” above.
