One thousand and four words on Camila Cabello’s “I LUV IT” featuring Playboi Carti
There are about 16 beats between the end of Camila’s chorus and Carti’s verse, and the whole time I found myself thinking please don’t fuck this up Carti, please don’t fuck this up....
Camila Cabello released a song today called “I LUV IT” featuring Playboi Carti and I have to say I was very excited. Today is my birthday and honestly it was the thing I was most excited for. She’d been teasing it a while on twitter, posting snippets of the chorus to mixed reviews. Lots of people didn’t take well to this shift in her music as she opts for a more hyperpop electronic sound—leaving her usual 2018 esque pop behind and inches closer to Charli XCX than Katy Perry.
Some people accused her of trying to be or maybe stealing from Charli XCX and I’d like to address that first. Though I’m happy to see Camila experimenting, not every artist who uses synth and autotune earns the title hyperpop. The song itself is actually pretty traditional. The instrumentals are maybe brighter and more distinct than something Taylor Swift would use, but they don’t do anything particularly interesting. The chord progression follows just 4 notes and rarely deviates from its predictable pattern. It adheres to the traditional verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus structure. This is because it is a pop song, which is fine.
That being said, I luv the song. Its use of that racecar synth which blurs between notes evokes a nostalgia for late night highway drives. The amount of autotune on her voice is perfect in the verses and her raspy tone fits the song beautifully. The chorus and pre-chorus have been stuck in my head since she leaked them a month ago. They feel juvenile and silly and intoxicating. The drum line she uses feels very danceable and current. The song feels both nostalgic and current which I think is a very hard balance to strike. The Gucci Mane adlibs sample is kind of random and chaotic which I love. It’ll be on repeat for the next month or so.
But let me offer some notes: The song lacks a sense of escalation, which is fine if she is trying to get us to stay in this late night windows down highway drive nostalgic moment. It could have been interesting, however, to add more texture, another layer, or subtle subversion of the chords in the second chorus to make the transition into the new melody during Carti’s vs feel more intentional and less like a verse tacked onto to the song’s end. The little pauses scattered throughout, especially the ones before each chorus give the song some edge—I wish she had included those pauses before the verses to fragment the verse and chorus structure and make the song a little more interesting, but I guess this is supposed to be a single and fit for radio or whatever.
The proportions of the song feel a little off. The first verse and chorus are appropriate lengths but the second verse shortens to only 4 lines (which is half of what the first verse was) and post-chorus lengthens by 4 lines, making the song feel rushed in its middle. I don’t understand that choice. There are some pretty hidden layered vocal harmonies in the second chorus that I would have loved to hear more in the foreground as the song is a little vocally plain apart from the autotune.
The lyrics, like many pop songs, don’t say much of anything. They sound like something I would’ve written when I was 10 when I figured out that words that rhymed sounded better than words that didn’t. Which is crazy because the song’s credits lists NINE writers. Some of the lyrics border on cringe, seeming as if they could've been written by a millennial trying to snag a few extra gen z streams. Randomly, she says “Threw it back and he caught it” which I found sort of cringe. The song ends a little abruptly and I wish she had given us time to enjoy the instrumental and melody trailing off, solidifying a nostalgic feel.
I liked the pause before Carti’s verse. I have to say I was a little surprised to read the “feat. Playboi Carti” when I looked up the song on spotify—this was not a collab I saw coming and I wasn’t sure if their sounds would mesh well together. Interestingly, they meet each other somewhere in the middle of pop and whatever it is that Carti makes, Camila veering experimental (though not that much) and Carti sounding incredibly mainstream. There are about 16 beats between the end of Camila’s chorus and Carti’s verse, and the whole time I found myself thinking please don’t fuck this up Carti, please don’t fuck this up.
He didn’t thank god. I haven’t listened to a lot of his stuff so my perception could be totally off, but on this song he loses everything characteristic of his signature sound so I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between his voice and Young Thug’s or Future’s or some other rapper a label would throw on a track to attract a black audience. I like Carti, and his verse was okay but I think the song would’ve been better without him. Camilla had an opportunity to do something really interesting in the space Carti took—maybe something to make the vocals of the song more interesting and compelling. Instead, the (seemingly after the fact) choice to add Carti to the song feels to me like a record label move to pander for streams at the expense of artistry. Sad.
Overall, the song is good and I’m excited to see if Camila goes further in this artistic direction. I think she should. The song pulls from compelling instrumentation and its sound is beautiful and is rich in nostalgia but grounded the present. It feels, however, a bit dull at times and lacks layers, texture, and subversion that would make me really in love with it and could benefit from some refining. If Camila is attempting some sort of rebrand I think she should loosen the reins and lean more into experimentation, maybe with less label influence. Excited to hear more.
Here is some other stuff I’ve been listening too that I think is well produced:
Raven - Kelela
The von dutch remix - Charli XCX, Addison Rae & A.G. Cook
Natural Habitat - 070 Shake & Ken Carson
Fashion Icon - Aliyah’s Interlude
CARNIVAL - ¥$ and others
Swamp Bitches - Doechii & Rico Nasty
Flute Loop - Beastie Boys
WIZZ - COUCOU CHLOE
Familia - Yeat
7 x 7 set - Caroline Polachek ← humming is the original creative practice
I Believe - Caroline Polachek ← interesting experimentation with modernizing very dated, corny, referential sounds, this woman is a genius i love her
forever - Charli XCX
Sodom & Gomorrah - Dorian Electra ← lyrics so witty and hilarious
SAOKO - ROSALÍA ← seamless weaving of synth and real instruments
Watch - Arca & Shygirl
Charcoal Baby - Blood Orange
Arrow Root - MF DOOM
Tamagotchi - Omar Apollo
Slave - UnoTheActivist ← idc i love this
VYZEE - SOPHIE ← my favorite bridge ever
Bury me - PinkPantheress & Kelela
Dsco - Sweet Trip ← this song is my anthem on tinder lol
Crush - Ethel Cain
Princess Going Digital - Amaarae
party 4 u - Charli XCX
Here’s a spotify playlist if you don’t want to click the links. The Polachek 7 x 7 set is only on youtube tho.
more from me soon <3
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This was so entertaining to read before having listened to the song. this is how i felt about addison rae's album (EP??) like maybe i'll get crucified for saying i like her music but it's such good pop music. kill me. idk.