Camila Cabello Is “Weirdo” Now, Kinda On “C, XOXO”

Camila Cabello called She was “weird” when she announced her third solo album, and “I Luv It,” its Playboy Carti-assisted lead single, sampled from Gucci Mane's fever dream, certainly fits the bill. Zippy synths accompany Cabello's sleek delivery with semi-surreal lines like “I go soprano/ Baby go down low/ And when he leads/ I musta follow,” while the chorus seemed designed for maximum bark adhesion.

The wild, manic “I Luv It” had people wondering if the former The X Factor the contestant was entering the age of hyperpop. While C, XOXOin which Cabello worked with El Guincho (Rosalía) and Jasper Harris (Doja Cat), has its explosive moments, the album overall feels like a gradual descent from the opening track Florida, as Cabello is forced by circumstance to figure things out—to the point where the shimmering “Twentysomethings,” which veers between ballad and braggadocio , relies on admitting, “I don't know what the hell I'm doing.”

Along the way, he indulges in pure enjoyment (the raucous, ludicrous “Chanel No 5,” Lil Nas X's backseat “He Knows”). she celebrates her successes (the slick City Girls collaboration “Dade County Dreaming”) and her friends (the gleefully boisterous “Dream-Girls”). tangles with her feelings for exes (“June Gloom,” which manages to balance syrupy funk and sullen brooding); Drake is also present on two stormy tracks about a doomed couple. He even threatens to “pull out the credit card statements” in his defense, which is an extremely Drake-like way of handling the conflict that also vindicates Cabello's protests, on the confusing “Hot Uptown,” that he doesn't worth. year.

C, XOXO doesn't establish Cabello as “weird,” but its neon-hued chaos shows that she's allowed to run with her ideas more fully (she wrote all of her lyrics and lead lines, a career that first lets her stretch and contort voice). It's a vibrant, hungry album that feels fearless even as it grapples with the unknown—the paradox of the late 20s turned candy-coated pop.