What a catchy mess

With her second album, Camila Cabello claims she will enter into the chaotic world of romance, but isn't it what every pop singer writes about?

After a strong debut, Camila needed to prove herself once more and releasing "Liar" and "Shameless" as her first singles was not the best decision. The first one had "Havana" vibes all over and the second one wasn't radio friendly (would work better as a track album). Commercial success isn't crucial, but everyone was keeping an eye on her, expecting something new or powerful.





"Cry For Me" tries to save the album, doing better than the others with its rock infectious sound and full of mature and gripping vocals. My hopes for the album grew exponentially with the arrival of "Easy", showing how original Camila can be while writing her songs.





Then we had to wait for the 6th of December.













On Romance, Camila reflects on how love can be destructive and thrilling once you give another chance to it. Since she wanted to explore this topic deeply, having a storyline would improve the outcome because love is a complex subject and we can talk about it in different ways instead of the same old cliches.





Lyrically, the album doesn't expand itself, giving us what we have already heard in the radio. Hopefully, there are some exceptions. Bad Kinds of Butterflies paints the crucial moment of love can be uncontrolled, Used to This and Dream With You give us the reckless behaviour of falling in love again and First Man is dedicated to her father. Easy and Cry for me also show how fragile and dramatic relationships can be. If the other tracks explored other specific moments of romance, then the album would be much more apreciated. Feel it Twice alongside with This Love or Senorita and Liar are perfect examples of the repetition of lyrics we have, it isn't anything fresh.

















Where the lyrics fail, the production gets it right. Each track sounds different from the others and we have catchy patterns and gripping melodies. Latin flavour is still very present and tracks like My Oh My or Should have Said It could easily make this record popular. Overall, her sound is more mature and versatile. Without many piano ballads, the slow songs developed on an atmospheric sound which is excellent (thanks FINNEAS, producer of Used to This and First Man). Autotune was overused over the album and we know she is a great single. The autotune was helpful while layering vocals or making the track more creative or using it for effects but in some parts it was just unnecessary.





Talking about vocals, ON POINT. She showed us her development in all registers, used more her head voice and falsetto (which was a bit difficult to like at the beginning) and her belts were powerful. She gave us a great vocal performance and emotional delivery as well.





To sum up, Romance would be a masterpiece if it followed its original concept, the world of romance, and could easily be compared to a Melodrama if it had a decent tracklist or storyline. Although the potential was lost, we have some good tracks and a modern and vibrant production which will make me listen to the album for a while.











