Why the Internet hates Camila Cabello right now

At the end of June, popstar Camila Cabello released her fourth album C,XOXO. It strayed drastically from her hits "Señorita" and "Havana" though, pulling elements of hyperpop and alt-pop. This change was taken with mixed feelings by many with the rollout of singles but soon turned sour once the full LP was released.

The common consensus online is that Cabello's efforts are nothing more than mimicry, primarily of the album earlier in the month BRAT by Charli XCX. From similarities in instrumentation to association with unfavorable artists, she's received backlash for most aspects of her album.

During the rollout of magazine reviews, a noticeably large amount was negative rather than the typical 7 and 8 out of 10s given to major pop albums. Paste Magazine ripped into it by immediately calling out the eyebrow-raising similarities to BRAT, later stating that Cabello has no consistency throughout the project.

Critics haven't sugarcoated their thoughts on Camila Cabello's C,XOXO

The lack of artistic confidence was also mentioned by the Guardian, which brought to light the drastic differences from her earlier discography. Her morals and beliefs of being "a good example for younger girls" in her music are quickly abandoned for many vulgar and sexual innuendos, sparsely appealing to an unfamiliar audience.

Cabello's choice of featured artists was also subject to criticism, as Slant Magazine describes Playboy Carti's feature on the lead single as total gibberish, while other artists exemplify their far superior talent to Cabello on her own songs. There was additionally a red flag for Drake's inclusion on two tracks, especially after his career was publicly unraveled by Kendrick Lamar following their beef.

User scores have generally been low too, as several thousand users of websites such as Album of the Year and Rate Your Music have given an average rating of 4 out of 10. Popular internet music reviewer Bradley Lehmann, better known by the name Brad Taste In Music, held a similar opinion, describing C,XOXO as "less of a stylistic awakening and much more as a mid-life crisis" with a 1/10 rating.

The singer has tried defending herself

In the midst of controversies, Camila Cabello has put out her own thoughts that attempt to explain the musical direction. She's lengthily described it as her stepping into music that she feels is more representative of her, discussing the process of collaborating with people she took inspiration from with an optimistic attitude.

Although she failed to mention any recent allegations that came up about her featured artists in the months preceding her album, it makes sense not to given that it would be bad marketing. Some of this promotion has backfired, however, as a video posted of her song "I LUV IT" was parodied by Charli XCX herself.

In Charli's video, she replicates Cabello's video but with the song that fans alleged was stolen from her, which further fueled the hate train against the latter. Four months later though, Cabello claimed that Charli privately told her that she wasn't mad, using the message to tell her critics to F-off.

It's confusing as to why this was held back for so long with how negatively it impacted her album, but the information nevertheless keeps the spotlight on C,XOXO. The album is available to stream everywhere, but I'd recommend listening to Charli XCX's BRAT first to get the full picture of what's happened recently.

More music news and analysis: