Album Review: Camila Cabello’s ‘C,XOXO’

When Camila Cabello first teased her fourth LP C,XOXO, she promised a love-letter to Miami. Three months later, that letter arrived, stamped, and signed “C,XOXO”: Much more than a love letter to the city that raised her, but a love-letter to Camila herself.

The first single for C,XOXO arrived in March and was far from the sound we’ve expected from the 27-year-old. Though, were we to expect more of the same when Camila debuted a brand-new blonde look to announce an album? “I LUV IT” was a reintroduction to the Miami-girl whose been in the public eye for over a decade, since she auditioned on The X Factor in 2012. The track was hyperpop with a mumble rap verse from Playboi Carti and didn’t truly make sense at the time: Now it does.

The album snagged producers El Guincho (Rosalía, FKA Twigs, Björk) and Jasper Harris (Tate McRae, Jack Harlow, Post Malone) while tapping all-star credits with features from Lil Nas X, Drake, and City Girls. With only two producers to work with, Camila says she felt the freedom to truly write this album how she wanted to- because she had to. The newly blonde and self-proclaimed “baddie,” returned to the Magic City to record her new era her way. The result? Something fun, sexy, and inventive.

“I LUV IT” was far less of an album highlight when there are better dance records such as “He Knows” with Lil Nas X or her solo single “Chanel No. 5,” and much more of a way to separate her image from her prior album’s single the Latin tinged “Don’t Go Yet.” This is a new era and “I LUV IT” was the party bus that ushered it in.

So, where does Miami come in? Well, it’s in the nuances. The fourth outing from Camila leaves pop on a hiatus, or at least blends it carefully into hip-hop, Afrobeats, R&B, reggaetón and electronic music- all the sounds of the Miami streets. It is the feeling of driving windows down through your home-town and hitting the spots that your heart didn’t forget after years away. The album cleverly uses its interludes (I.e “Pink XOXO,” “305TilIDie”) and shorter track lengths to invoke this feeling. C,XOXO can go from the feeling of hitting your local club, to the 3 AM drive home with your childhood friends reminiscing on a broken heart.

With local Miami icons City Girls rapping aside Camila on “Dade County Dreaming” and a Pitbull sample on “B.O.A.T.” tagged onto El Guincho and Harris’ musical backgrounds, this “love-letter to Miami” promotional material all seems to make sense as every new track begins and ends. Though, in ballads like “B.O.A.T.” and “twentysomethings,” the idea of “Miami” becomes much more abstract. These intimate moments mute the sounds of the city streets and let the city girl take center stage.

“Should’ve left the party sooner. Gotta have a sense of humor when it comes to us. I Don’t know what the f–k I’m doing,” Camila sings on “twentysomethings.” Along with “B.O.A.T.,” where she relives a breakup that didn’t end how she wanted, the few tender moments of C,XOXO prove even baddies cry sometimes and hit even deeper when they are mixed carefully between songs that celebrate the single life of a “twenty something” year-old.

The previously mentioned Pitbull sample of “Hotel Room Service,” which appears on the latter half of “B.O.A.T.” was one of the most-clever uses of imagery I’ve found on this album. As Camila pours her heart out on what can be her biggest album yet, she does so over the faded instrumental of another Miami legend from the years right before she left the city to find fame with Fifth Harmony.

When I mentioned nuances, this is it. There are surely more obvious Miami references, but what makes this album special is how much heart was really put into it and how much Miami remained in that heart. Luckily for us, Camila’s control over her fourth studio album also manifested not just one, but two of Drake’s best releases in recent years. “Hot Uptown” sounds like something from Drake’s Views era, which is an automatic win for me. Drake then continues into the ninth track “Uuugly,” an interlude where the rapper takes center stage over Camila, who adds just the background vocals.

“June Gloom” concludes the album and contends as another standout. This album shows the singer’s maturity as an artist and seems to be the most glaring representation of her true self since her solo career began. Even if that maturity comes in the form of immature innuendoes and electric heavy beats, this album began as an idea to represent Miami and reached that goal. C,XOXO is Miami, and Miami is Camila.

C, XOXO arrives on Friday June 28. Pre-order it here and let us know your thoughts!