Is Camila Cabello getting weird? Or is she just getting real?

She says so herself. “Magic and actual like Murakami,” she coo-brags over the smothered piano twinkles of “Chanel No. 5,” nodding to the magical realism of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami — which is a pleasant factor to listen to after Florida led the nation in tried e-book bans in 2023. For an excellent tidier declaration of neo-self, go straight to the track’s hook, the place Cabello makes use of her digitized rasp to posit herself as a “cute woman with a sick thoughts.” She’s telegraphing her makeover right here, however no less than she retains it trendy and fast. The remainder of Cabello’s massive mutation is within the music itself, which — with the assistance of producers El Guincho and Jasper Harris — does all types of sci-fi tips with its glossy timbres, exploded types and sweet-tart moods.

On the extra refined aspect of that spectrum, there’s “B.O.A.T.,” a grieving piano ballad devoted to “one of the best of all time.” When Cabello’s heartsick refrain liquefies into rainbow rivulets of synthesizer melody, she’s displaying us {that a} gradual track doesn’t should be corny to be sentimental. It virtually appears like a retort to a long time of Disney. Then on the opposite finish, there’s “Dade County Dreaming,” a collaboration with the lately defunct Miami rap duo Metropolis Ladies during which Cabello boasts on the fringe of her breath, whispering self-aggrandizements in her loneliest voice. This one appears like a retort to too a few years of Drake.

Oh no, we summoned him. For no matter cause, the deflated rapper seems on two consecutive cuts on the heart of this album, “Scorching Uptown” and “Uuugly,” wandering round in his poseur patois whereas Cabello sings curlicues round him, delivering her melodies with a vitality that may remind you of that point Drake ruined Rihanna’s “Work.” As for the album’s different misstep, it’s an unforced error on the very finish titled “June Gloom,” a track a couple of explicit kind of summertime unhappiness that permits Cabello to waste three life-erasing minutes wishing she was Lana Del Rey.

A minimum of that admiration felt mutual at Coachella again in April, when Del Rey invited Cabello onstage throughout her set to carry out “I Luv It,” probably the most euphoric track on “C,XOXO” and a front-runner for probably the most vivid pop single of the yr. Have you ever heard this factor? First, a synth line seesaws like hurricane floodwater sloshing towards a sliding patio door. Earlier than lengthy, Cabello will get caught within the titular chorus like a nervous tic. Then, the cherub choir from Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade” floats down from heaven within the type of a pattern. Then, Playboi Carti saunters out of a parallel dimension and into his visitor verse. By now, Cabello’s new thesis is all however written within the sky: We are going to know true pleasure by how unusual it feels.

You solely hear a pop singer rebranding herself? At minimal, think about a postcard from Florida carrying an ecstatic message of survival, penned in teal ink, the handwriting going slack as if melting in 2024’s apocalyptic sunshine: I luv it, I luv it, I luv it, I luv it, I luv it, I luv it, I luv it!