BY: Kayla Cardona

After the mainstream appeal she’s garnered over the course of the last decade with singles such as Havana and Señorita, Camila Cabello has made the decision to come forth into her own platinum blonde spotlight with her latest album C, XOXO. As of her departure from the group Fifth Harmony in 2018, Cabello has crafted a name for herself through the massive popularity of her singles. This singles-driven path for her career has left Camila pigeon-holed as a pop star whose albums come and go with little to no expectations of real substance or artistry. However with this new release, the Miami-raised pop star has successfully written the first page of a new chapter of her career. 

With C, XOXO being the first album under her new record deal with Interscope Records, she’s been given the opportunity to execute the artistic vision she’s always seen for herself. A vision which now feels more aligned to who the singer seems to be at her core, a melting pot of both her influences and her roots in Miami. Cabello’s fourth studio album began its rollout earlier this spring with its first single, the divisive I LUV IT which featured Playboi Carti. The song was released to mixed reviews, along with claims that Cabello was attempting to capitalize on the recent surge in popularity of the hyperpop genre. However after the album’s release, it appears that Cabello instead sought to capture the experience of driving under the city lights in Miami and recreate the many sounds and genres one might encounter on any given night, drawing from hyperpop, afrobeats, reggaeton, and trap music, all of which seek to create the very zeitgeist of Miami as one that is fluid, yet poignant. 

With new collaborators such as the aforementioned Playboi Carti, Lil Nas X, Pink Pantheress, the City Girls, and Drake, Camila has found the inspiration needed to craft an album that is diverse sonically, while simultaneously displaying the best writing of her career. She manages to express themes of sensuality, vulnerability, and most importantly finding her own identity through reinvention, as she intuitively navigates the never-ending emotional, yet transitive state in one’s twenties. Cabello implements song structure more akin to that of rap than to the traditional formulas of pop music for many of the stand out tracks on the album, of which Chanel no. 5 has begun to make waves amongst fans and critics alike. It is with this track at its center, that Cabello has begun her reinvention and the crafting of the world for this album as one that is visually painted with images of glamor, passion, and energy. 

Other standouts from the album include the brief interlude pink xoxo with UK alternative pop artist PinkPantheress. The interlude serves as a transition from the futuristic, neon bright, and hyperpop influenced first moments of the album, and into the more electric and sensual center of the album wherein the character Cabello has created begins to find herself within the thralls of Miami night-life. This shift in the album reaches its peak with Dade County Dreaming, the uptempo collaboration with Miami rappers JT and Yung Miami. The track captures a sound that is sharp and has a sort of punch that is new to Cabello, but so heavily ingrained within the city that she was raised, it is only right that now in her discovery of self that she’s come around to embrace it. The track’s placement at the halfway point leads into one of the highest moments on the album, despite it also being representative of the central issue with the record. 

Following the rather unnecessary spoken word interlude by Florida rapper BLP Kosher, there is what will likely become this album’s biggest hit, HOT UPTOWN featuring Drake. The song sees Camila take a backseat as Drake utilizes a tried and true formula to create the sensual and rhythmic sounds we’ve come to expect from Drake when he takes the Afrobeat detour sonically. The pair made a banger, undeniably, but with it comes along its sister track Uuugly. As the title of the track states, it's a rather ugly and undercooked low for the album, with Drake crooning aimlessly for most of it. The track is representative of the biggest issue with the album as a whole, Camila Cabello’s influences have far too heavy of a hand on an otherwise great example of her artistry. 

The issue is also evident on one of the moodier tracks on the record, Twentysomethings. The track explores some of the heavier themes on the album, touching upon feelings common amongst young women within their mid to late twenties, such as those of lost identity, confusion, and the feeling like one may have overstayed their welcome at the party. It is some of Camila’s better writing on the entire album, but it is distractingly derivative of SZA, as even the name is only a letter off from SZA’s 20 Something. Although not a singular experience that belongs to any one artist, the issue lies with her need to seemingly mimic SZA’s vocal inflections and melodies. These heavy handed influences are seen all over this record which is presumably supposed to be the avenue through which Cabello is to create her own identity unique to her. 

It is clear that Cabello now wants to be taken seriously within pop music and while this is a strong first step in the artistic progression of her career, showcasing newfound artistic direction and depth, Camila has plenty of room for refinement throughout this transition. That being said, this reinvention is indicative of a massive shift in her career as it propels her towards a new audience that is attracted to her newly found artistic intuition and confidence - something desperately needed in pop music today.