FAMILIA: A Camren Analysis
Hey everyone, I’m back with another Camren lyrical analysis. I didn’t expect my PRELUDE post to take off the way that it did, so why not also write one for Familia? First off, I just want to say a few things about the album.
I LOVE Familia. It has zero skips- not a single one. It’s by far the most listenable of Camila’s albums in the sense that I can put it on and just vibe to the music. The majority of Camila is sad breakup songs, and Romance is such an emotional roller coaster of “I hate you, I love you, I hate you again, also let’s get married.” For this reason, I’ve only listened to it twice all the way through from start to finish in the 2+ years it’s been out. Don’t get me wrong, I love songs that get me in my feelings, but can’t listen to a whole album of them on repeat. Overall, my ranking of Camila’s albums is 1. Romance 2. Camila 3. Familia, though I really do love them all.
Compared to Camila’s other albums, Familia possesses certain standout qualities. As always, Camila impresses with her vocal talent, and in my opinion, Familia has the best production of all her albums. But I feel like lyrically, this was her weakest album. That’s not to say the lyrics were bad by any means, just that there were no songs on Familia that could compare to Living Proof, Used to This, and of course, Consequences.
Still, Familia is Camila’s most mature album yet. Just like several other artists, she predominantly writes about love and romance, but now dares to explore edgier topics on Familia, such as politics and gender equality (Lola) and her mental health and anxiety (psychofreak). Camila’s music has previously incorporated Latin influences, but in Familia she fully embraces the Spanish language and Latin pop, a genre which suits her quite well. Take notes, Yogurt King: this is how to evolve as an artist instead of just doing the same thing over and over.
Speaking of the circus, I knew it would feature throughout this album. I feel like for Romance, Camila wrote her truth and her team tried to make the songs about “Shawn,” but due to narrative and timeline inconsistencies, this explanation was like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Unfortunately, this time around it looks like Camila had to write some songs specifically FOR the PR. On Familia, we get some stunt lyrics on songs like Boys Don’t Cry and everyone at this party, and full-on stunt songs like Bam Bam and (maybe) Celia. I didn’t love the PR aspect of the album, but you can’t deny they’re good songs.
I also think that Familia is her straightest album yet. Even if you had no idea who the hell Lauren Jauregui was, you could tell that a lot of songs on Camila and Romance were extremely queer-coded (Shameless, Liar, Señorita). Since there’s none of that on Familia, we have to rely on our own knowledge as Camila’s fans to do a queer analysis of this album because sadly, not everything can be as obvious as “mmm green eyes,” “black leather jacket,” or “La Cienega, where I remember you.” I’m not saying that these songs are definitely 100% ~no doubt~ about Lauren- just that if they are, here’s how I see them fitting into the Camren saga.
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