She herself says so. “Magic and reality, like Haruki Murakami,” she says.Chanel No.5” It’s nice to hear these words after Florida, reminiscent of the magical realism of Japanese novelist Murakami Haruki. Led the country In a 2023 attempt at a publishing ban, Cabello sings in a digitized, husky voice to position herself as “a lovely girl with a sick heart.” She’s previewing her own transformation here, but it’s at least stylish and swift. The rest of Cabello’s big transformation is in the music itself, where, with the help of producers El Guincho and Jasper Harris, she’s doing all sorts of sci-fi tricks with her smooth tones, explosive shapes, and bittersweet moods.
On the more sensitive side, there’s “BOAT,” a heartrending piano ballad dedicated to “the greatest of all time.” As Cabello’s sorrowful chorus melts into an iridescent stream of synthesizer melody, she shows us that a slow song doesn’t have to be corny to be sentimental. It feels like a decades-old rebuttal to Disney. And at the other end, there’s “Dade County Dreaming,” a collaboration with recently disbanded Miami rap duo City Girls, in which Cabello boasts breathlessly and whispers exhibitionism in her loneliest voice. It feels like a long-standing rebuttal to Drake.
Oh no, we summoned him. Somehow, the wizened rapper appears on two consecutive cuts that form the centerpiece of this album, “Hot Uptown” and “Uuugly,” with Cabello singing as she swirls around him while Drake belts out Rihanna’s “workThe album’s other misstep is a self-defeating one on the final track, titled “June Gloom,” which sings of the endemic sadness of summer and wastes three minutes of Cabello wishing she were Lana Del Rey while snuffing out her life.
At the very least, the respect was mutual at Coachella in April, when Del Rey invited Cabello onstage and said, “I’m so glad you enjoyed your time with me.”really like“C,XOXO” is the most euphoric of the bunch, and a front-runner for the year’s most vibrant pop single. Have you heard it before? First, a synth line sways like a hurricane flood crashing against a sliding patio door. Then, Cabello fixates on the titular refrain like a nervous tic. Then, Gucci Mane’s “lemonade” descends from the heavens in the form of a sample, and Playboi Carti appears from a parallel universe to deliver a guest verse. By now, Cabello’s new thesis is all but written in the heavens: “True joy is measured in how weird it feels.”
When have you ever heard of a pop singer rebranding herself? Imagine, at the very least, a postcard from Florida bearing an ecstatic message of survival, written in turquoise ink and with handwriting so loose it seems to be dissolving in the apocalyptic sunlight of 2024. Love it, love it, love it, love it, love it, love it, love it!
