C, XOXO is the fourth album from Cuban-born pop singer, Camila Cabello. It’s been a pop girl summer for sure, as Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli xcx have all been dominating this year. I liked her track, “Havana,” which came out like 7 years ago, but the singles that I’ve heard from this album, I really didn’t like. Still I’m going to give it a fair shot.

    We open up with the album with the first single off of the album, “I Luv It,” featuring Playboi Carti. Only one track in, and it’s already one of my least favorite songs on the record. The “I love it,” chorus is extremely annoying, as it sounds super processed and poorly sung. There’s parts of the song where she sings well, and Playboi Carti did his best to save the song, but he just sounds totally out of place with this production. Instrumentally, it’s not exciting either. 

   Following that, we have another single, “Chanel No. 5,” the piano instrumental sounds out of tune at times, which I don’t know if that was intentional, but it sounds fucking awful, which makes me sad, because I usually like piano instrumentals in songs. I don’t know why she’s relying so heavily on auto-tune, when she’s a talented enough singer, therefore, she doesn’t need to use it. The song’s catchy, I’ll give her that, but there’s a lot of spots where it’s like she’s not even trying to sing well. It’s not the worst on the album, but it’s far from the best.

   “Pink XOXO,” has some cool layers of synthesizers, and Camila’s singing is a lot stronger on this track, but it isn’t even a minute long. Why tease us with a track that sounds promising, just to cut it short? It had the potential to be a good track, but I guess we can’t have nice things. Following that, is another single off the album, “He Knows,” featuring Lil Nas X, which I actually like, I like the electronic sound of the production, and sure, there’s autotune, but it doesn’t sound as grating as on other tracks. Lil Nas X’s contribution is solid too, very gay lyrics, but a solid verse nonetheless. Still it’s kinda hard to not notice that she lacks a lot of authenticity sound-wise on this album. “Twentysomethings,” is a love song with an acoustic sound, and way less autotune, which makes it a lot more enjoyable. It’s probably one of my few favorites on this album. “Dade County Dreaming,” sounds decent enough instrumentally with those futuristic synths, but the drastic change in sound from the track before it makes it stick out like a sore thumb. I respect that she got two Miami artists, JT and Young Miami, on a track about living the lavish life in Miami, but I don’t like their contributions, as their voices are extremely grating and add little to nothing to the track. The spoken word track, “koshi xoxo,” featuring BLP KOSHER, is another meaningless interlude, where Camila has someone else record a spoken vocal track, where he talks about how her music got him through a rough time in his life. Still, while nothing’s wrong with a little dose of narcissism from time to time, it’s not likable like the Larry Hoover Jr. spoken word outro on Kanye West’s track, “Jesus Lord.” “Hot Uptown,” featuring Drake is a very boring track, both Camilla and Drake’s voices sound alright, but Drake’s fake accent at parts is incredibly eye roll inducing, and the whole track just feels like it’s meant for the radio. Next we have another Drake feature, with “Uuugly,” which I feel sounds better than the previous track, I really like the production and the emotional angle of the track, this one’s ok/

   “DREAM-GIRLS,” has a reggaeton sound to it, which is a welcome change of pace, but the synthesizers and pianos don’t really sound good over a reggaeton beat, but at least the autotune isn’t as heavy. It’s not terrible, but it’s definitely not a highlight. “305tilidie,” is another brief interlude that adds nothing to the album, but it’s nice background noise, I guess. “B.O.A.T.,” is another piano ballad with love-sick lyrics, and I will admit, Camila’s voice sounds a lot stronger on this than on tracks such as “I Luv It.” Still, Jesus fucking Christ, that annoying pitched up sample of Pitbull, should never have made it onto this track. Still I’m feeling like being nice, so I’m willing to overlook it and call it a highlight. “pretty when i cry,” feels like a retread of, “Hot Uptown,” especially on the drum/percussion front. Finally, we close off the album, with “June Gloom,” which almost feels like she’s trying to rip off Lana Del Rey at some points. It’s just a clichéd love song about how her ex’s new girlfriend isn’t as good as her. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard plenty of tracks that do that well, even if it’s a cliché. Vocally she sounds good, but the beat sounds like a lo-fi hip hop instrumental off of YouTube. Maybe I’m just being harsh, and I do like how she shows off her vocal range in the bridge, but that instrumental outro sounds disgusting with that wobbly synth bass and annoying synth horn.

   To put it simply, this album is incredibly derivative and soulless. The tracks are all over the place, and while I like when artists try to incorporate different sounds, the album doesn’t feel connected and cohesive. The features are pretty lame for the most part, and don’t add that much to the record. If it was up to me, I’d review nothing but good albums, but I can’t like everything I listen to, nor would I do that. This is because if I just pretended that all the new albums I listened to were amazing then I wouldn’t be a very good consumer of music. Camila has a good enough voice, but the heavy use of autotune ruins it. There’s rappers and singers that use autotune and sound way better than she does. It’s just a collection of disorganized clichés and therefore, I really didn’t like it.

Overall Score: 3/10

Favorite Tracks: “He Knows,” “Twentysomethings,” “B.O.A.T.,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “I Luv It,” “Chanel No. 5,” “Dade County Dreaming,” “Hot Uptown,” “DREAM-GIRLS,”

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuP0RP0VACw

Genre: Pop