Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Camila Cabello (“Familia”), Miami-raised “Havana” pop singer released her much anticipated single “I LUV IT” on March 27, featuring Playboi Carti (“Whole Lotta Red”). Cabello’s previous work entails mid-tempo pop and Latin influenced releases.

Cabello seems to be switching up her style, exploring a hyperpop and electro-pop genre. The single starts off with an angsty, wild girl trope: “Supersonic, in your orbit/And I’m bad, diabolic/Bottle rocket, on the carpet.” The beat starts off with strong bass and a head-on storyline of a celebrity in a new relationship. 

Regrettably, the tempo quickly picks up as Cabello decides to exclaim “I love it” 27 times in a row. This single received backlash from Cabello’s snippet far before its release due to an uncanny similarity to Charli XCX’s “I Got It” from her “Pop 2” mixtape seven years ago. Cabello’s overall new look, beachy blonde hair with A24-based bangs and 2014 filters prompts a respectable transformation in her production.

The single feels fresh and, frankly, more fit for a summer hit. Cabello’s ability to give listeners imaginative stardom and a curious exhilaration is remarkable. With high-pitched backup vocals, synced curves and the classic side-chaining effect, “I LUV IT” is a recipe for ample party music.

Moving on to Carti’s verse, he opens with “Oh, you on the road now?/Oh, you grown now.” Carti takes the storyline to another level, signaling that the two had a past connection in which Cabello was sheltered, now being “free” and open to risk. The storyline cleverly reflects Cabello’s evolution from a uniform-structured Fifth Harmony member, to a heavily managed and calculated pop-singer, to finally an artist with experimental liberty. This single perfectly introduces us to a new and deserved surface for Cabello. 

Similar to many released singles in the past four years, this song is essentially made to be an easy TikTok trender. The title and repetitive chorus itself, “I LUV IT” can be applied to any hypothetical situation, object, place, person, food and so on. It is not entirely unforgivable to fit a song into the TikTok equation, but it is very important to remember that what makes a song appealing to the Gen-Z audience is authenticity. Blatantly picking a hook that can be plugged into any perspective or “pov” video reads as inauthentic and forced. 

This leads to the inquiry: is Cabello really as free and avant-garde as her team portrays? Ultimately, we decide who is relatable and “one of us” in a warped desire to relate and identify with a public figure. In order to be that effortlessly distinctive personality that we reach largely through TikTok, producers have to just tone it down. Keep the new edgy style and continue to follow trends, as, ultimately, the goal is to produce a hit, but keep it natural and less overtly fabricated for a very specific platform. 

Carti’s verse could have been mixed more smoothly into the entire song, and it feels as though Carti was put on the song for the sake of him being Carti. The song is catchy, and within a couple of listens is hard to forget. The song gets points knocked off mainly for its exasperating and rushed chorus. Camila Cabello’s “I LUV IT” is a fairly successful gateway into further popularizing hyperactive avant-pop.

Image from Camila Cabello via YouTube