Need you more than I want to: a "Romance" review
Camila Cabello: you've heard of her name, you know the voice, you saw the video of her and Shawn Mendes making out earlier this year and struggled to figure out if they were mocking what people were saying about them or not. She's had quite the career, placing third with her fellow Fifth Harmony members on The X Factor in 2012 when she was fifteen. When the girl group's pop debut didn't stick, they pivoted to R&B, Cabello's heavily Auto-Tuned vocals cresting above the waves of the others along the way. Syco saw promise in her, however, and proceeded to increase her spotlight time on the group's next album. By the end of that year, Cabello was pursuing a solo career. No longer the weakest link of the team, Cabello blossomed a little bit more, releasing some fairly solid pop hits before pivoting to Latin-based touches throughout her debut. Although her vocals still had their strain and the production was bottom of the barrel, the record was catchy as heck and had its fun moments. Romance looked no different.
Like last album, a double A-side was released and the second track charted higher. However, this time, both songs made the record and are very fun. "Shameless" radiates 2007 Hilary Duff energy as Cabello relishes in feelings for a crush over simmering guitar and propulsive drum fuzz in the hook. "Liar" is reminiscent of "Havana" but with more pop embellishments, Cabello tracing the open fantasies of "Shameless" and trying her best to deny their intensity. Yet she fails ("oh no, there you go / Making me a liar / Got me begging you for more")...not like she's complaining. Both singles showed greater improvement in Cabello's vocals and were infectious from start to finish. Add to that an album all about the highs and lows of Romance, and I was a very intrigued Luke, ready to see the lengths Cabello was willing to go to capture the melodrama of falling in love.
She went far. Romance is another iconic pop record of 2019, bold and loud and vivid. Cabello's vocals are rarely subtle throughout the forty-five minutes, production drizzling Auto-Tune on whenever there's a crack or off-pitch moment, but that may be the point. The album is dramatic and going for grandiosity; it's not particularly concerned with intricacy or the complicated equation of emotions fueling desire. It's a broad sweep of excitement and nervousness and falling head over heels, and that's what makes it fun. Oh, and some interesting production choices and Cabello going all out to be a presence doesn't hurt.
The fire of "Shameless" starts off the album before it flickers away, making way for latest single "Living Proof." It takes off with a sample from The Africa Heartwood Project, a group of girls beginning a hand-clapping game before percussion abruptly cuts in. Cabello now has her crush in the palms of her hands, and it's an exhilarating and heady rush. "Like a / Choir singing hallelujah / When my / Body's crashing right into ya," Cabello sings in the pre-chorus, the Biblical references intensifying when she arrives at the chorus. "Were you sent to save me?" Cabello wonders in a whispered falsetto straining to evade pitch correction, coming to the conclusion that "there's God in every move / ...And [her lover's] the living proof." Although the song has its moments of mind-boggling vocal stretches and ludicrous lyrics, the rollicking beat is fun and playful, anchored in the clapping sample to give it additional body. It's a track that can be taken seriously or not, but it's still three minutes of fun regardless.
Follow-ups "Should've Said It" and "My Oh My" (the latter is a digital-only track), while trying to capture that smoldering feel of the first track with the bounce of the second, somewhat fall flat in comparison. The former is a dig at Cabello's current beau, who confessed his feelings for her when she was with somebody else at the time. Despite the groove given by the guitar and synth, it lacks memorability for me. "My Oh My" begins with Auto-Tuned laughter and anchors itself in a pre-chorus and chorus, with only one verse between Cabello and guest rapper DaBaby. Details of "a black leather jacket / A bad reputation / Insatiable habits" excite the listener, but the track's melody and content feel repetitive, no matter how cool it might be to see Cabello hooking up with some guy for kicks. Also, DaBaby rushes to get his bars on tempo, which makes the track come across even more as a last minute addition.
A track on the record that surprised me: Cabello's collaboration with Shawn Mendes, "Señorita." In hindsight, I shouldn't have been. The track blew up this summer, the prologue to the relationship about to start between the two young performers. It's also, despite my disinterest in Mendes, a great pop song. The production is excellent, simmering in percussive snaps and guitar as Cabello and Mendes act out an illicit love affair. Their chemistry is intense and palpable, Mendes' falsetto becoming layered with his deeper register as he paints a picture in the first verse: "sapphire and moonlight / We danced for hours in the sand / Tequila sunrise / Her body fit right in my hands." Cabello's vocals are more compressed, but she has an absolutely beautiful run after the two find themselves "locked in the hotel" once more: "'Cause you know it's been a long time coming / Don't ya let me fall." The nods to the official title of a young lady in Spanish and confessions of the power of "every touch" make this song fiery and seductive, contrasting well against other moments on the record, songs like the wide-eyed thrill of "Dream of You."
But not everything is sunshine and rainbows here. Moments of tension leak through on several tracks. "Bad Kind of Butterflies" uses a sparse and dark arrangement of keys, strings, and drum kicks to replicate the worst kind of stomach churn, the one propelled by the question, "What do I do when I love you and want somebody else?" That doubt creates the perfect amount of uneasiness, although Cabello's runs in the back of the final chorus border on too much. "Feel It Twice" somberly rejects an old flame who now feels for Cabello, channeling more Duff and a little Sabrina Carpenter through acoustic guitar and a more opulent hook. "This Love" has the same instrumental core as "Feel" while rejecting a toxic lover despite reluctance ("maybe you should set me free / Maybe I don't really want you to / Maybe I just wanna be / ...The person that you just can't lose"). Where the stakes melt away is "Easy." Although it starts with Cabello's partner pointing out how she's "complicated / ...Indecisive / Fickle, but [she] tr[ies] to hide it," it's revealed that the partner would "rather fight / Than spend a single peaceful night / With somebody else." It's a sweet sentiment, that people can embrace a relationship despite its frustrations. As long as everyone involved is healthy and treating others with the respect they deserve, that's all that matters.
"Cry for Me" brings the tension right back. "You look so happy walking down the street / Don't you, babe?" Cabello notes. "Did you forget? / You said that, in this lifetime, you could never / Get over me." Cabello's ex has moved on to another relationship while Cabello suffers from a broken heart. "I want you to cry for me," Cabello declares on the chorus, vicious jealousy overtaking her. She wants her ex to feel the pain she's experiencing. How dare he move on so well! This intensity gradually builds throughout the song, exploding in a static-filled guitar solo over Cabello's warbling that takes a listener aback. There's fire here, though, and the adrenaline from that is simply infectious.
FINNEAS's production on the last two songs of the record, "Used to This" and "First Man," follows suit. He's a co-producer on the latter track, but his influence shines through in glittering keys and atmosphere. The former makes use of fuzzy bass and brilliant synth as Cabello falls deeper in love with an old and familiar friend, getting "used to" being in a relationship with them (there's also an excellent sample of a drink being poured and glasses clinking together). "First Man" turns to Cabello's father, FINNEAS allowing each piano note to ring true as Cabello reassures her dad that he was "the first man that really loved [her]." No matter where this new relationship takes her, Cabello won't disappear from her father's life. Cabello also dials back her bravado here to reach that subtlety she's getting better at expressing, the instrumentation stretching out behind her to do that job instead. It's sentimental and a little cheesy, but it's a touching note to end the record on, nodding at familial relationships holding their own kind of love.
That is Camila Cabello's Romance. It's a journey, one that's mostly broad and focused on immediate emotions in love rather than something that could be deeper and fully evaluated. At the same time, however, it works, and I like it despite how much it exhausts me. Cabello continues to be an iconic performer that leaves me perplexed but interested in what comes next, and this record comes together to create an experience I'll remember for a while.