Alessia Cara, Love & Hyperbole Review

by Rudy Palma

Alessia Cara’s voice has always been the heart of the allure of her music with its warm, expressive authenticity. On Love & Hyperbole, she surrounds her vocal artistry with a soulful sound, embracing a sound that’s expansive in the R&B direction. Her delivery is nuanced and marked by an effortless command of tone, embellishments, and diction that underscore the album’s vocal emotional depth.

From the first phrase of “Go Outside,” Cara delivers a confident vocal aura. Her tone is sweet yet full of weight, easily caressing the song’s R&B-inflected melody. She leans into a controlled breathiness, allowing her words to linger in the air just long enough to feel the intention behind them. The chorus showcases her dynamic control, swelling into a resplendent, airy falsetto that feels powerful and emotive.

Then there’s “Dead Man,” a track where Cara dials up the power. Her voice takes on a huskier edge, its raw energy cutting through the song’s full instrumentation. The versatility she displays here flows between smooth and sultry but always full-bodied. She bends notes with a playful agility, giving the track an old-school soul feel.

“(Isn’t It) Obvious” is colored with Cara’s impressive vocal phrasing. Her delivery is laced with subtle inflections, and each word drips with charm as she navigates the song’s conversational cadence. She uses vocal flips and understated melismas to add texture without over-embellishing, demonstrating a restraint that makes every nuance feel organic.

Throughout the album, her diction is pristine and never overly polished. On “Left Alone,” she whispers through the verses with a delicate touch, her articulation crisp to push the melodic line with direction. The instrumentation allows her voice to sit front and center, showcasing the intimacy of her delivery. There’s a tangible sincerity in the way she elongates certain syllables, stretching each phrase just enough to imbue it with a quiet yearning.

“Slow Motion” boasts a charismatic groove; her vocal approach leans more into familiarity with contemporary R&B expressions. The melody is pleasant, and the added backing vocals give urgency and emotional push to key phrases. “Go Outside,” “Subside,” “Garden Interlude,” and “Clearly” are some of the mid-tempo cuts that, though technically sound, don’t quite allow her vocal sound to fully explore the expressive range she’s clearly capable of.

Love & Hyperbole finds Cara at her most introspective. While past records leaned into youthful storytelling, this album presents a matured perspective—love songs tinged with realism and reflections wrapped in poetic honesty. She doesn’t just sing about emotion; she embodies it, letting her voice become the vessel for every confession, every moment of longing, every hard-earned realization.

In the grander scope of her discography, Love & Hyperbole shows Alessia Cara as a vocalist who knows her instrument inside and out. Her performance here isn’t about showboating; it’s about finesse, about knowing when to push and when to pull back. This is, by far, her most vocally assured work, and even in its quieter moments, her voice remains a compelling force that draws listeners in, note by note and phrase by phrase.