And that's a loaded statement, but let's run through it: the widely-publicized split from Fifth Harmony, a well-managed Instagram glam presence when a lot of mainstream pop acts don't really play that game conventionally, and the increasingly cringe-worthy back-and-forth she has with Shawn Mendes with seems to be trying a little too hard to be believable or likable. And in the 2019 mainstream pop market, that might be enough to stand out... even as I can't help but see a faint whiff of similar marketing that Jennifer Lopez used over fifteen years ago in the early 2000s.
And like that era of J.Lo, Camila Cabello's music is bad and riding way more on a faint approximation of style than vocal talent or quality. By far the worst vocalist from Fifth Harmony thanks to her breathy, chewy delivery and weak shrillness, her debut Camila was an exercise in amateurish production that provided more texture than her by-the-numbers forgettable material deserved. And like J.Lo ahead of her, her popularity translating to success lives and dies on the hits, and when you look at her solo output that's not a sterling record. Yes, 'Senorita' was massive, but let's be real: swap out Camila for Becky G or Karol G and doesn't the song get immediately better, maybe because the song is more reliant on brand and marketing? Because when Camila has been required to carry hits by herself, 'Shameless' was a flop because it was a flagrant attempt to co-opt the darker pop edge, and even with the benefit of the crossover Latin market 'Liar' has underperformed. So to hear that her label was dumping this album in early December - I mean, it's not January like last time, but to me that screams like Epic and Syco - the latter of which, I should remind you, is run by Simon Cowell - dumping a turd that doesn't even have a 'Havana' for crossover, especially given the messy recording process that was Camila in 2018. So yeah, this likely wasn't any good - what did we get?
Sadly, exactly what I expected - but what alarms me is the niggling feeling that this could have been a lot better, with the fixes honestly pretty straightforward to cobble together something passable, albeit not great. And then you remember that Camila Cabello is signed to Syco and remember their reputation for bottom-of-the-barrel production and then you might be left with the feeling that she's being set up to fail... but I'm not even sure it's that. To me, Romance screams of incompetence and mismanagement, where in the absence of artist development we have a sophomore slump for an artist that can't afford one, and that's a bad sign.
Because - and there's no way around this - Camila Cabello is not a good singer. Beyond what I've already described - sloppy diction, a breathiness that becomes increasingly shrill and messy, and only barely on-key at the best of times - I get the unnerving feeling nobody's told her what range best flatters her. Let's be blunt, you can be a bad or limited singer and still make good music - look at Britney Spears or Selena Gomez - but if you don't understand your own limits or how to best express your presence on record, your good songs slide to mediocrity and your bad songs become excruciating. This is one reason why I brought up artist development because vocal training and developing poise can help in this case, especially with the attempt at sultriness that seems to be Cabello's default affectation - it's rare that she brings forward any sense of subtlety or languid texture or tightness or restraint, instead often oversinging or reaching into her somewhat pitiful falsetto which compromises any sort of vibe - the painful hooks of 'Living Proof', 'Bad Kind Of Butterflies' and 'Dream Of You' spring to mind here. I was never really convinced of any chemistry with Shawn Mendes on 'Senorita', but that's about as it good as it gets with her in this lane, and that's not that good! But that also highlights an open question surrounding what sort of singer that she even wants to be, which impacts your vocal production or layering or even choice of songs, and this album doesn't seem to have any clear direction - you'd think that it'd be an easy worldwide crossover to throw in the generic reggaeton beat which might come close to matching her voice and style, but the closest this album gets is 'Liar' thanks to the mariachi horns, a miss on an obvious lay-up! And then later on we get cuts like 'This Love', which wants to be a retro-soul song, and whoever thought Cabello's limited voice could have handled that should have been fired from their job months ago!
Of course, on a project with obvious missteps, we might as well tackle the production - which is a disaster. The only songs that come close to being competently mixed are the final two ballads, where Billie Eilish's brother FINNEAS steps in as pretty much the only person who knows how to produce for a limited vocal range with any sense of subtlety and detailed production, like the subtle Zedd-like clock he slides into 'Used To This' to amplify her nerves. But most of the rest of the album has been handed over to Louis Bell - arguably the most competent here so much as he's going to smother it all in reverb and autotune - alsoran production duos Mattman & Robin and The Monsters & Strangerz, and perennial annoyance for me Frank Dukes. And I think at some point everyone realized that Cabello's voice was not being coaxed or pushed in the right direction compositionally, so instead they took the slapdash approach of washing out the mixes with autotune, overloading the percussion lines, and leaving whatever melodies to suffocate and die on the floor. Can someone tell me which of three different percussion grooves were working on 'Living Proof', or why the electric guitars sound like absolute ass on 'Should've Said It' and 'Cry For Me', or why there's nothing here that's allowed to sound warm and organic to support her rougher vocal tone? More alarming, again, is the lack of direction beyond the bad production - 'Shameless' sounds a cheap imitation of Halsey trying to rip off Billie Eilish's atmosphere, 'Easy' sounds like it was trying to be a Lover-era Taylor Swift song with bargain-barrel mixing, and even if I think the bass line isn't bad on 'My Oh My' in a blatant attempt to recapture the success of 'Havana', DaBaby somehow has even less chemistry with her than Young Thug did on that song! But what's more alarming is that as a whole, the album just sounds really cheaply produced, especially around Cabello's vocals which are rarely given any sort of desperately needed support or foundation before getting shoved to the front of the mix, with drum machine patterns sounding stiff and clunky, and with an attempt to drown things in smoky reverb to disguise bad choices with no sonic direction! If I have to say anything positive... I dunno, I might actively dislike the vocal layering on 'Dream Of You', but at least there's a coherent tune beneath the hook, and the groove on 'Cry For Me' is decent.
But now we have to go to the lyrics... and I'll be blunt, there's not a lot here. Which is odd because if Camila Cabello is trying to be sultry and romantic, the writing should be getting a little more steamy and interesting than this - granted, the romantic chemistry we're relying on is with Shawn Mendes, so I'm not surprised it's kind of lukewarm, but your production and vocals are a mess you need to have something better here! The most tension this album gets comes in some lingering feelings that she might have towards her ex before Mendes, which slip through on the teasing of 'Should've Said It' and the questioning regret of 'Feel It Twice' and 'Bad Kind Of Butterflies' - which even she's admitted the last song is a little uncomfortable to revisit, so why this wasn't cut as one of the worst songs on the album I have no idea! That being said, there are decent lines and ideas here - 'Easy' is a riff on Lauv's 'I Like Me Better' and I might actually tolerate this song more, and I like how 'Cry For Me' is a kiss off that wants him to be worse off or at least fake that he is - it's petulant and melodramatic, but it's pop and I can tolerate that. And look, I don't get the Shawn Mendes chemistry - it certainly isn't sold very well, and the presence of DaBaby's explicit collaboration right before 'Senorita' is questionable - but the obvious lyrical references on 'Dream Of You' and 'Used To This' are cute enough, and for a while I actually liked the more grounded detail that comes on the conversational 'First Man'. Unfortunately, that song faded on me when you realize it's directed at Cabello's father emphasizing how much he loved her first and... look, it's weird and backwards-looking when guys write these sorts of songs about their daughters, and Cabello's not a good enough songwriter to not make this sound offputting!
But as a whole... look, it's obvious I'm not a fan and this album is not for me, but that doesn't mean I can't assess quality and when things go off the rails. The fact this album's promotion has floundered the way it has for an out-of-nowhere release in early December with no coherent instrumental direction and some of the most slapdash production I've heard in the mainstream this year - even if I don't like Camila Cabello as a singer, the failures go beyond her here! And while you can blame a lot of this on Syco - their track record is a mess, and this is not surprising to me - the mismanagement of her career development is an astounding waste; this should be better than it is, and it does not bode well for her long-term career, especially given the rest of this album. As such, while I'm giving this a very light 4/10 and I can't recommend it, I do hope her fans support her; she's on a label run by Simon Cowell, and after this, she might need all the help she can get.
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