When Camila Cabello started seemingly imitating Charli XCX, it was clear: The pop-music public was not along for the ride. It was an easy claim, since people already weren’t that into her Cinderella movie, and she and Shawn Mendes were over, which left everybody with significantly less meme fodder. But this week, something shifted: Her new album, C,XOXO, is apparently … pretty good? It’s time to give Camila some credit, guys.
We know, we know. We love to see a girlie win, but after main-pop-girl spring came and went, pop fans really didn’t expect her to end up on top, or at least on the higher end of critical acclaim. But the reviews don’t lie. Pitchfork gave the album a 6.9, which is much lower than Charli’s recent 8.6 for Brat but higher than recent pop-girl releases from the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, or Dua Lipa. And the review, by Harry Tafoya, is more than willing to give Cabello credit where due, writing that the album is “expertly weaving in loose strands that telegraph the artist’s taste and sensibility.†The Vulture review by Craig Jenkins notes that “at its best, XOXO drifts between self-certainty and capriciousness, loving and hurting its way to maturity.†Not too shabby!
Reports are flooding in from the street that haters are now sharing that they found the album kinda good. Tobias Hess, who profiled Cabello for Paper, reported on Twitter that “the cool internet gen z writer intelligentsia is secretly texting me of their seatedness for c, xoxo.†And the group he’s reporting on are almost certainly Charli devotees, so that took a lot. But that’s the vibe all around; many are asking how they ended up here, unable to say that Camila Cabello didn’t not serve, to which we say this: Babe, it’s okay to like the album.