There’s a paradox at the heart of Camila Cabello’s hyperpop rebranding, for the way that it seemingly champions individualism but leans aggressively on current trends. Loaded with modish bells and whistles, Cabello’s fourth studio album, C,XOXO, aims to capture the whimsical charm and energy of a flirtatious wink but lacks genuine spontaneity. Even as the music desperately tries to convince you of its unflappable bad-bitch mojo, many of the songs come across more like an annoying younger sibling begging for attention.
A more accurate comparison for C,XOXO might be that of an adolescent impersonating an adult—the adult, in this case, being Charli XCX, whose ditzy Auto-Tuned vocals are shamelessly copied at the start of “Chanel No.5”—and mistaking mimicry for mastery. This could also explain the album’s juvenile fascination with swear words and sexual innuendo, pushed to cringe-inducing extremes on “June Gloom” (“Does she get this wet for you, baby?”).
C,XOXO is dead-set on keeping things moving at all costs, oscillating between one-dimensional genre crossovers, big-name collaborations, and spoken-word interludes. Before you even realize how forced, say, references to Murakami Haruki and Quentin Tarantino on “Chanel No.5” are, another gaudy, inorganic stunt emerges. Elsewhere, Playboi Carti starts rapping in total gibberish once “I Luv It” begins to lose steam, and the most notable aspect of “B.O.A.T.” is its expensive sample of a hit from yesteryear (Pitbull’s ‘Hotel Room Service”).
The album’s brevity and truncated track lengths convey a certain flippancy that can be read a bratty sense of indecision, even free-spiritedness. But its stylistic exercises come off less like manic excursions into new sonic terrain and more like quotas to be filled. Between D.O.A. stabs at watered-down reggaeton (“Dream-Girls,” a female empowerment anthem that interpolates The-Dream’s “Shawty Is Da Shit”) and sterile electro-pop (“He Knows”), C,XOXO struggles to find its footing whenever it strives to be as contemporary as possible.
Cabello is a competent enough performer but isn’t magnetic enough to sell most of these songs. This becomes apparent whenever she’s paired with more skilled artists, such as Drake on the dancehall-flavored “Hot Uptown” or the City Girls’s JT and Yung Miami, who rap circles around her on “Dade County Dreaming.” Cabello gives it her all, but the guests she’s assembled here simply project more natural confidence and charisma.
While amounting to little more than a generally shapeless hodgepodge of popular fads masquerading as idiosyncratic creative choices, C,XOXO is at least never anything less than committed to whichever ridiculous wig it decides to try on next. And every once in a while, the sheer ludicrousness results in something as gonzo as the overstimulated opener “I Luv It,” a beautiful clusterfuck that could have been a 100 gecs track in another life. But while Cabello might view C,XOXO as an adventurous new step in her career, it plays more like a TikTok video: attention-grabbing, disposable, and instantly forgettable.
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When they will give the power to someone decent to give a good review, this seems more like the fools who throw hate on Twitter/x
lmao. This writer has been doing this for a long time and wrote negative reviews for other artists too. you’re just saying this cause she’s your fave.
there’s more to stan twitter sweetie. and if professional music critics noticed the charli xcx comparison too then the similarities are there. you’re all just in denial
A poorly written review, that didn’t discuss the music but was full of biased stan culture dislike for the artist, horrendous work by the reviewer
Paul Attard next time try to do a partial review without any kind of favoritism, comparing two artists who have NOTHING in common. If it was someone else writing about Murakami you would surely be talking about the lyricism and depth that this brings to an album, but yay the gays are gonna love it so who cares about it!!!
A poorly written review, you should listining this better
Review of the year. Thank you Paul!
Fans of hers are horrified that you hit the nail on the head, I’d have gone even lower with the star rating tbh.
old tastless twinks should stop opening their mouths. This album isn’t for you
This album review is nothing more than the rehashing of stan culture talking points with no substance, saturated with a biased point of view. It does not discuss the music or technical side of the album and instead, references Hyperpop despite the album picking up from Urban Miami beats which explain the carefree and over-exaggerated innuendos and sexualized lyrics.
there’s only one hyper pop song in the album, the rest are ballads and reggaeton music. They clearly based that comparison over one out of fourteen songs.
Terrible review and written with such distain for Cabello. What is she doing that’s cause you so much hate? Like all young adults, experimenting. Experimenting with different sounds, ideas and curiosity based on her life experiences thus far. She’s been an amazing live performer over the years and you even try to steal that away from her by commenting on her as mediocre performer that must rely on other’s fame. POS review, written badly and full of dopey analogies in an effort to make yourself sound more intelligent than you actually are. I hope Ms. Cabello takes this insulting piece with stride and laughs at the trash writer you are on her way to the bank.
Awful review. Biased and inattentive to the arts. Shame on Slant Magazine for putting this out.
A poorly written review, that didn’t discuss the music but was full of biased stan culture dislike for the artist, horrendous work by the reviewer
Every singer will have an album that people hates and that’s part of growing as an artist. And all the artist inspire on each others, that’s not new lol
Poor thing, you defending your diva? This review is extremely un-professional, and yet you defend it. For what? Idk, but this is exactly like “stan twitter” as you said. “cringe-inducing extremes” Lmao talking about cringe. Anyways, hope you get well soon