Reflection

pop albums don’t usually make me angry. disappointed, maybe. amused, often. but reflection — fifth harmony’s debut — is a full-body cringe experience, the kind of thing that could only have been created in the mid-2010s, when major labels were shoving groups of teenagers into the studio, telling them to sing about sex, money, and power while getting none of the three themselves.

the album opens with “top down,” which is basically a 2014 tumblr meme set to music. it’s all fake empowerment, faux glamour, and lines that make you want to bury your head in your hands: “passed out real and i woke up realer.” somewhere, a songwriting team cashed a large check for that.

for a second, there’s a glimmer of hope: “sledgehammer.” it’s sleek, infectious, and one of the only tracks here that doesn’t feel like it was pulled from a rejected jessie j demo. but then you hit “this is how we roll,” and all goodwill evaporates. the pre-chorus is surprisingly strong — you’re ready for liftoff — and then the drop hits: a bargain-bin edm beat so generic it could’ve come from a stock music library. it’s musical catfishing.

the big singles, “bo$$” and “worth it,” haven’t aged well either. they were sold as feminist empowerment, but the irony burns brighter the older you get. teenage girls, unpaid and overworked by their label, belting about financial independence and being “worth it”? it’s grotesque. “worth it” in particular is unlistenable now, not because it’s technically terrible, but because it’s such a transparent attempt to replicate the success of “talk dirty” by jason derulo, right down to the sax riff.

and then there’s “them girls be like,” which might be one of the worst songs ever recorded by a mainstream girl group. i don’t say that lightly. the lyrics are basically a buzzfeed listicle from 2014 sung over a bargain beat: “do i look fat? (or nah).” “is she hatin’? (uh huh). does it phase me? (nuh-uh).” “take a selfie every night, get at least 100 likes.” i’m begging for death by the second chorus. it’s less a song than an advertisement for everything wrong with mid-2010s internet culture, and the fact that this was packaged for girls barely out of high school to sing on tour every night is… actually dystopian.

vocally, the album is almost as messy as the writing. the group had at least three genuinely strong singers, and yet the label pushed camila as the frontwoman — a decision that makes less sense with every ad-lib she struggles to deliver. the production tries to cover for her limitations, but it’s impossible not to hear the whiplash moments where someone else swoops in to hit the notes she couldn’t. it’s a revolving door of “wait, why is she singing this if she can’t actually sing this?”

the rest of the record is filler: forgettable, beige tracks that vanish as soon as they’re over. none of them stand out, which is maybe the cruelest thing you can say about a pop album.

in the end, reflection is less a debut and more a case study in how labels chew up and spit out young artists. the songs are dated, the production is cheap, the lyrics are embarrassing, and the whole thing reeks of corporate desperation. the fact that they managed to become as popular as they did with material this weak is a genuine miracle.

TRACK RATINGS:
top down — 2/5
bo$$ — 2.75/5
sledgehammer — 4.5/5 ♡
worth it — 2.5/5
this is how we roll — 2/5
everlasting love — 3/5
like mariah — 3/5
them girls be like — 2.5/5
reflection — 3.5/5 ♡
suga mama — 2.5/5
we know — 2.5/5