Camila Cabello’a self-titled “Camila” album review
Some compared her exit from Fifth Harmony similar to Beyonce leaving Destiny’s Child. While it wasn’t as drastic as a move to the music world, it definitely came as a surprise and got the media’s attention, which brought the spotlight to Camila Cabello.
Cabello began to find success outside the group with records like I Know What You Did Last Summer with Shawn Mendes and Bad Things with Machine Gun Kelly. This ultimately led to Cabello’s split from the successful girl group back in 2016 to pursue a solo career.
Both tracks she featured in hit the top 20 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and a year after the split, the group seemed to have found their footing without their fifth member and Cabello was on the path to a successful solo career.
Cabello’s first solo record “Crying in the Club” did fairly good Peaking at #47 on Billboard and People became curious to see how her solo run would pan out. It seemed the split was a smart move from the Cuban-American singer as Cabello’s success wouldn’t stop there.
The album’s lead single, “Havana” featuring rapper Young Thug is currently sitting comfortably at number 2 and projected to hit #1 by next week. Plus, her latest single, “Never be the Same” is being pushed and slowly climbing the charts curruenlty sitting at #61.
Now, the 20-year-old singer has released her highly anticipated self-titled debut album “Camila.”
The 10 track album is a great length for a debut album. “Camila’s” sound ranges from track to track, but has a touch of everything that one would look for.
Cabello gives fans slow jams such as “Never Be the Same,” “All These Years” and “Real Friends” which are three standout tracks.
On “Real friends,” Cabello sings about untrustworthy people in her circle and how she lives around superficial people, a feeling a majority of us can relate to. The track is all about Cabello wanting to be around only real people and create “real” friends which she sings on the hook.
I’m just lookin’ for some real friends
All they ever do is let me down
Every time I let somebody in
Then I find out what they’re all about
I’m just lookin’ for some real friends
Wonder where they’re all hidin’ out
I’m just lookin’ for some real friends
Gotta get up out of this town
I love the simplicity of the track. It has a relaxing sound with the few plucks of the guitar and some background effects, but mainly focuses on Cabello’s voice which sounds great on this track, and really, throughout the entire project.
“Camila” offers some upbeat tracks, too. “She Loves Control,” “Inside Out,” “In The Dark” and of course, trap banger “Havana” help bring the album a different sound.
“In The Dark,” a more pop cut has Cabello asking someone to open up to her and to be true to themselves.
I can see you’re scared of your emotions
I can see you’re hoping not hopeless
So why can’t you show me? Why can’t you show me?
I can see you’re looking for distractions
I can see you’re tired of the acting
So why can’t you show me?
The above tracks help change the tune of the album to a happy and meduim before going into her more emotional side with “Consequences” and “Somethings Gotta Give.”
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“Consequences” surprised me. This showed real emotion and conviction. Cobello does a great job of telling the story of loving someone that ultimately causes consequences.
“Secret keeping, stop the bleeding. Lost a little weight because I wasn’t eating.” Cabello sang. And while the love for this said person was “wild and free” the love ended up being “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”
Out of the 10 tracks though, I found this to be the only track on the album where Cabello was not credited for writing, which is unfortunate. This was a standout track and I thought Cabello, herself had an estrange love that impacted her life.
Nonetheless, a great showing and further proved she can handle both a party and upbeat type track as well as a beautiful ballad.
Three songs that were noticeably absent from her debut were “Crying in The Club,” “I Have Questions” and “OMG.”
Considering her debut single already peaked I understand why that was cut, but leaving off the other two was a huge mistake.
I thought for sure Cabello had her next big hit single when “OMG” dropped with Migo’s frontman, Quavo, but then out of nowhere, Havanna took off.
The trap cut was only on the charts for a week and peaked at #81, but a hot remix easily could have blown the track up and reached its potential.
Another song that wasted its potential was “I Have Questions.” When I heard this song I thought that was more of a standout record and rawer than the poppy “Crying in the Club,” but naturally, that track took over the radio and generated more buzz. While that record was not for me, I saw the radio and club appeal.
“Camila” definitely had some strong tracks, but it had its low points. “Inside Out” and “Into it” easily are the two least compelling tracks on here and could have been left off and replaced with “I Have Questions” and “OMG.” In my opinion, those tracks had depth and stood out and would have made this an even better debut.
If the label did not want to cut songs this could have easily been a 12 track album omitting the second version of “Never be the Same” as there was no need to have it on there twice.
2018 will be a good year for Cabello and we should expect to hear more hits from Cabello. Besides “Never be the Same,” tracks like “Real Friends,” “All These Years,” “Consequences” and “In the Dark” have the mainstream potential to give Cabello more buzz. I strongly hope her label pushes “In the Dark” as a single too as that can and be another hit on the Billboard list for Cabello.
While projections for the album are only around 92–97k, Camila has already hit number one worldwide in 100 countries on iTunes charts, thus making Cabello the first solo artist to achieve those numbers for a debut album in the platform’s history.
Not to mention, her album was number one on Spotify with nearly 10 million streams.
I was not sure what to expect from Cabello on her debut and I think having no expectation was the best. “Camila” is a solid debut for the newly solo artist and intrigued to hear what she has planned next.
