Just over a year after parting ways with Fifth Harmony, the X-Factor born girl group where Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello first got her start in the music industry, the singer now has scored herself a number one song on the Billboard Hot 100, a Billboard number one album that also topped the charts in over 100 countries upon release, and a world tour that sold out in just a day. Her debut album, Camila, is a latin-inspired pop album that speaks to the soaring highs and the tragic lows of love with upbeat, modern production that references her roots in Cuba and Mexico.
Though Camila Cabello originally intended to title the project The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving., after the success of her smash hit single “Havana” she pushed back the release date and went back into the studio to rework the album to be far more referential to Latin music and true to her heritage as a Cuban-American. Cabello was the lead writer on all of the songs on the album, which is especially poignant after she left her Fifth Harmony after feeling a lack of creative control and depth to her work.
“Never Be the Same,” which serves as Cabello’s current single, is a heartfelt ballad where the singer speaks of a relationship that she knows isn’t good for her, but she can’t get away from it. The song uses drugs as a metaphor for her addiction to this kind of love: “just like nicotine, heroine, morphine, suddenly I’m a fiend and you’re all I need” and “just one hit of you, I knew I’ll never be the same.” Cabello’s shows off her vocal range on the track, utilizing her falsetto in the pre-chorus accompanied by waves of mesmerizing synthesizer sounds.
The album soon picks by the third track, “She Loves Control,” where Cabello tells the story of a woman, presumably herself, that seeks to be in control of her relationships. Cabello’s focus on an authentic Latin sound truly reveals itself here, as the track features a hard-hitting, danceable beat and Spanish guitar plucking that sounds like something that would be played all over Latin America.
Fittingly, Cabello transitions into “Havana” afterwards, serving up more sounds authentic to the artist’s upbringing. This song was Cabello’s breakout solo hit; the song is certified 3x Platinum in the US with over 3 millions sales. Lyrically, she talks about falling in love with a guy from Havana, where she was born. The song features a rap verse from Young Thug, the only feature on the album. The absolute success of this song really shows the burgeoning interest in America and global music markets for Latin music, alongside the success of songs like “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.
On “Consequences” and “Something’s Gotta Give,” Cabello sings forlornly about heartbreak, showcasing her songwriting talent more so than anywhere else on the album. “Consequences” is a heartfelt tale of a relationship that fell apart. Cabello at first sings fondly about the past, revealing that “loving you was sunshine, safe and sound,
a steady place to let down my defenses” but in the final chorus is entirely change to reflect her final thoughts on the past in retrospect:
Loving you was dumb, dark and cheap
Loving you still takes shots at me
Found loving you was sunshine, but then it poured
And I lost so much more than my senses
‘Cause loving you had consequences
On “Something’s Gotta Give,” the musician paints the picture of a relationship in the process of falling apart. Cabello knows something has to change, but she seems fully aware that nothing of the sort will happen. She laments that “No reason to stay is a good reason to go,” after realizing all the cracks widening between herself and her lover. Camila Cabello proves that she can truly write a killer ballad on this track, opting for a painfully emotional and raw delivery over the soaring vocals of the more uptempo tracks elsewhere on the album.
Camila Cabello has quickly and assuredly established herself as one of the main voices in the pop music world, and Camila helps lay the foundation for even more success in the albums afterwards. This first solo release of hers might find its only fault in the conceptual singularity, though romance is clearly something very important to the singer. Regardless, Cabello shines here as a talented lyricist and an entity entirely independent of her past ties who is proud of her rich cultural upbringing and is ready to share it with the world.
Listen to Camila on Spotify below:
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