Camila Cabello - Romance

Pitchfork 61

The pop singer’s second album some memorable moments, but Cabello evokes a vision love so universalized that it blurs it out of focus.

The Guardian 60

(Epic/Syco)

You might say love is a smidge overdone as a pop trope, yet somehow evergreen. The second Camila Cabello album, Romance, is giddy and frisky, but not to the point of nausea – thanks, mostly, to the Cuban-American superstar’s charisma and the way she pointedly mutters “anything else?” on Easy, one of a clutch of pre-album appetisers.

Taylor Swift’s Lover was faintly “meta”, billed as being in love with love. Romance, by contrast, finds Cabello swooning with less of a wink and a nod, singing her relationship with Shawn Mendes. “Shawmila” went official this year, yielding the inescapable Señorita, a Latin-inflected hit whose utter naffness is offset somewhat by all the IRL billing and cooing.