Camila Cabello may just be the most underrated pop star of the current generation. Her popularity is not in doubt, with two hits that have been streamed on Spotify over two billion times: the sultry ‘Havana’, featuring Young Thug, and the steamy ‘Señorita’, with Shawn Mendes. Her albums too have been chart-topping successes, including the fully-realized body of work called ‘Familia’.
However, when Cabello recently launched her latest era, some pop fans reacted with suspicion. Accused of copying Charli XCX with this album’s lead single ‘I Luv It’, Cabello responded bullishly, telling Paper: “Charli loves me, so everybody can f*** off.”
‘C,XOXO’ is a laconic, off-kilter pop record filled with heavily Auto-Tuned vocals inspired by T-Pain. It’s a new sound for Cabello that heightens the music’s intriguing, trippy sheen. Her lyrics pivot between pithy and revealing, and though some may sound like a craven attempt to generate a meme, there are tracks that cut deeper. When Cabello sings “I just wanna have a good night, struggling all my life. Want you to hold me tight and tell me that we’re alright” in ‘Twentysomethings’, she captures the way we use big nights out to solve – or at least distract from – relationship problems.
There are plenty of intriguing rap influenced pop cuts, including ‘Dream-Girls’ which celebrates female friendship over a dayglo reggaeton beat, and ‘Dade County Dreaming’ – blippy hip-hop featuring influential Miami duo City Girls. Although two mid-album Drake collaborations evince a slight blip in confidence, her success is undeniable. Regardless of where Cabello stands in relation to her peers on popularity, there’s no denying that ‘C,XOXO’ is packed with quirky earworms
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