Camila Cabello, a late member of Fifth Harmony, just released her debut solo album Camila on January 12th and it has completely taken over the pop charts! A brilliant mixture of Pop/R&B with aspects of a tropical Latin rhythmic elements showcases Camila’s Latin-American roots. Listening to this album gives a truly wonderful false sense of summer in the midst of these cold winter months.
As you listen, you don’t just feel the warm breeze on your face, but you experience every emotion that Camila is expressing through her silky vocal deliverance. This album is a story about love and loss. Each song unfolds part of a journey that is not unfamiliar to most. She starts the album off with her single “Never Be the Same,” which portrays the obsession and infatuation you feel when you’ve found the “one.” As we buckle up, we start the ride on the emotional rollercoaster of longing for that same love with “All These Years.” Camila conveys the yearning for the good parts of the relationship to come back when she finally sees him again, but with another women. “She Loves Control” brings out the sexy and empowering Cabello. You get the impression that she’s playing the game of putting yourself on the market for lust, but doesn’t really want to be committed. The biggest hit of the album that made the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts is “Havana”. The rap verse in the middle seems haphazardly thrown in, but the club beat layered with a catchy horn line is what brings the track life. Camila then brings a happy twist with “Inside Out”. The music encaptures the playfulness of learning everything there is to know about the person you’re falling in love with. Nevertheless, things quickly fall apart in the second half of the album with the ballads “Consequences”, “Real Friends”, and “Something’s Gotta Give”. She gives us a taste of the many forms of anguish, betrayal, and heartbreak that she dealt with. As the album comes to a conclusion, you get the impression that she starts looking inward to solve her problems in the last two songs, “In The Dark” and “Into It”.
Listening to Camila stimulates all of your senses with the array of emotional detail in the lyrics and the harmonic environment. It also helps that the production quality of the album is outstandingly well balanced. The instrumentation is vastly different in all of the songs to keep it exciting. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be addicted after the first listen!
Rating: 8.0/10
