Back in March, Camila Cabello dropped “I Luv It” – and it landed on the Internet like a grenade. As the lead single from her fourth studio album, , it represented a radical left-turn for the former Fifth Harmony member turned slick, chart-topping Latin-pop star: over bellowing synths and rattling electronic beats, Cabello had unleashed the most divisive song of her career, featuring a wild, half-mumbled verse from Playboi Carti and strangely addictive chorus. (Specifically, Cabello frenetically singing “I love it” over and over.
.. and over.
) Was this hard pivot in both image and sound a truly authentic reflection of Cabello, the person? Or is this the record she was always working towards, but never quite felt brave enough to make? Very much the latter, it turns out. “I feel like everything in my life and my work led up to me being capable of making this album,” Cabello says from Morocco, where she would perform the following evening ahead of the album’s release on Friday. (“I would join video, but I look crazy right now,” she says in her warm, raspy voice, before letting out a long laugh.
) “I feel like I came close to certain aspects of it before – all the way back to different parts of unreleased songs from when I was 16 and using GarageBand,” she continues, before adding, after a knowing pause: “It just took a while to get here.” In some senses, “I Luv It” is a neat introduction to Cabello’s new era, which is bold, brash, and often prett.
