Camila Cabello released her new album “C,XOXO,” on June 28, and I was excited to listen to it. However, not even halfway through the first three songs during my first listen, I knew that I was going to need to relisten, because in short, I was confused.
Cabello is a Cuban-born 27-year-old singer-songwriter who rose to fame as a member of the pop girl group Fifth Harmony. She released her fourth solo album, “C,XOXO,” on June 28, featuring 14 pop songs.
It is impressive that she was able to get artists like Drake, Playboi Carti and Lil Nas X on the album, but I think she overdid it with collaborations in general. These three features saved the album from being completely unlistenable.
With Playboi Carti, Cabello released the lead single “I LUV IT (feat. Playboi Carti),” which peaked at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song feels like it belongs on Playboi Carti’s album rather than Cabello’s. She brings nothing exciting to the vocals, and by the end of the song, I got tired of her repeating “I love it, I love it, I love it” over and over again. I would have enjoyed the song more if Cabello hadn’t been on it.
“HE KNOWS (feat. Lil Nas X)” is one of the few songs on the album where I enjoy Cabello’s vocals. Her vocals are smooth, but when she tries the grungy scratchy vocals, it just doesn’t sound right. In this song, she doesn’t strain her vocals at all, and they blend well with Lil Nas X’s.
“HOT UPTOWN (feat. Drake)” is mainly just Drake’s vocals. Cabello feels more like a background character within the song. The song is well written, and I always enjoy Drake, however, the choice to have a song that is mostly sung by another artist and have the same artist have a solo song on the album feels strange. Drake’s solo track on the album is “Uuugly.” Cabello doesn’t have writing credits on either song, so it makes me wonder why she put them on the album in the first place.
There are three songs that I would classify as “interludes” because of how short they are. Each one is under one minute and adds almost nothing to the album. The interludes include “pink xoxo,” “koshi xoxo (feat. BLP Kosher)” and “305tilidie.”
“pink xoxo” has a sci-fi tone that almost sparkles. I could see it being played in clubs or used as a break within a DJ set. I enjoy it — I just wish it were longer. “koshi xoxo (feat. BLP Kosher)” is where Cabello’s artistic direction is lost on me. The entire premise of the “song” is that BLP Kosher is raving about the album and how amazing it is. If the album is good, you should not need to have someone feature on it just to say how great it is, right?
The final interlude is “305tilidie,” which immediately made me think of the song “305” by Cabello’s ex-boyfriend, Shawn Mendes. “305” is on the album “Wonder,” which is an album allegedly about Mendes’s relationship with Cabello. “305tilidie” includes a lot of vocal clipsof Cabello talking about Miami and her time partying there, all backed by piano.
One song that lacks direction is “Dade Country Dreaming (feat. JT & Yung Miami).” I still can’t tell if I love it or hate it. Cabello has raspy vocals in the beginning which are followed by the featured rap verse and a rap verse of her own. After all this, the song ends with her normal light and soothing voice and piano. There is too much going on within this one song. I also was not a fan of JT and Yung Miami’s verse because it felt out of place. This made the verse feel like a completely different song.
The three weakest songs on the album were “Twentysomethings,” “pretty when i cry” and “June Gloom.” They all have lyrics that feel easy, like Cabello opened a thesaurus and found all the words that would rhyme. There is nothing notable about any of these songs.
“Chanel No. 5” is a very elegant song that has piano instrumentals and light and airy vocals. The song almost resembles the notes of the perfume Chanel No. 5.
“DREAM-GIRLS” is by far the most appealing song on the album. It is very summery, and the beginning reminds me of something Destiny’s Child would have written with the R&B sound. While the song is very clearly pop, it has a lot of R&B undertones and background vocals that give it a dreamy sound. The lyrics are simple and easy. The song is short and sweet. This is what the whole album should have been.
Finally, “B.O.A.T.,” or best of all time, is a really simple song that does a nice job of keeping her experimentation to a minimum. The autotune isn’t overdone, the instrumentals aren’t overbearing and the lyrics truly make sense. I also really liked that she sampled Pitbull’s “Hotel Room Service,” which makes an appearance at the end.
This album doesn’t seem to have one specific genre or concept. Each song is incredibly different from the others, with a lot of experimentation within each one. After several listens, I found songs I enjoyed, but the album was not what I was expecting or wanting from Cabello. There is no clear indication whether this is supposed to be a genre shift to rap or if she just wanted to have rap on the album. I respect her choice to experiment with new sounds, autotune and instrumentals, however, this album was not a hit.
