The dividing line in pop in 2024 is between artists sharing their deepest, darkest secrets and those who prefer to keep their vulnerable side under lock and key. In the first camp there is Taylor Swift and her diaristic doorstopper The Tortured Poets Department . In the other, Dua Lipa , whose recent album Radical Optimism has been criticised for its cold-fish vibes.
Column two also includes “Havana” singer Camila Cabello, returning with emotionally fenced-off fourth album, C,XOXO . Cabello found fame as a teenager competing on X Factor USA , where she became a founding member of Fifth Harmony. It seems she learned early in her career not to give too much away, and throughout C,XOXO she remains frustratingly inscrutable.
Working with Spanish producer El Guincho, she has delivered a 32-minute collection of ballads and bangers that, while brimming with big shiny beats, lacks rough edges or emotional hooks (to the point where the grungy sleeve shot of a bored-looking Cabello licking a lollipop feels like misdirection). Nor is it likely to chime with admirers of her earlier work. “Havana” fans may wonder why she has abandoned the feel-good bustle of her Latin pop origins for cool-to-the-touch R&B that feels like it has dropped off an assembly line.
The album starts promisingly with Playboi Carti duet “I Luv It”. Proceeding from dreamy, minimalist flutterings to an energetic stutter, the track serves as the perfect foil for Cabello’s breathy vocals. But from there, t.
