Isabella Lovestory – ‘Vanity’ review: neo-perreo’s freakiest sweetheart goes pop princess

Jun 27, 2025 - 10:56

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isabella lovestory vanity review

Since crashing the global club scene with her 2022 debut ‘Amor Hardcore’, Isabella Lovestory has become synonymous with messy, sexy, hyper-femme maximalism – a neo-perreo queen who is equal parts bratty, horny and unhinged. With ‘Vanity’, her second album, she’s dialed up that chaotic energy, trading grime for something sharper and sleeker, but still dripping in decadence. This isn’t a tidy glow-up – it’s a full-on glitter riot all about sugar, sex and self-possession.

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Hushed like a broken doll one moment and commanding like a dominatrix the next, Isabella’s genius is in her contradictions: soft but sharp, clingy but in control. And this pull between sharp and sweet worked for most of the album. ‘Puchica’, ‘VIP’ and ‘Perfecta’ are packed full of zany synthy squeaks and buoyant dembow beats that bombard your ears – mimicking the dystopian, sweaty hot-box from her debut that we fell in love with on ‘Amor Hardcore’ – as Isabella coos about her beauty and perfection.

Isabella also explores a nostalgic starry synth sound that throws you back to ’00s pop. ‘Putita Boutique’, a take on hyper-femininity that’s styled like an early-Lady Gaga track, sees Isabella’s signature hushed delicateness take a backseat to the stomping Euro-pop beat. Then there’s ‘Eurotrash’, a dizzy, trance-inspired tune that leans fully into the gaudy, campy chic of its title with a pulsating beat and tongue-in-cheek bravado. But it’s ‘Pill’ that wows the most: shimmering with radiant Europop textures and sparkling synths, Isabella crafts a syrupy, candy-coated celebration of self-love that feels like gumdrops and rainbows.

Songs like the title track and ‘Tu Te Vas’ offer rare moments of heartfelt yearning amid an album otherwise steeped in self-obsession. On the latter, Isabella searches for a vanished lover with poetic vulnerability, capturing the bittersweet cost of loving yourself at the expense of losing others: “You leave and I forget how to remember your voice / I recognise you in movies of love.” Meanwhile, the title track digs deeper into vanity’s darker side, asking philosophical questions like “Why could it be, that vanity is cruelty?” and “Why could it be, that lies are reality?” as she embodies the tension between illusion and reality.

The best thing about ‘Vanity’ is how unapologetically it commits to its own delusion – fully embracing the chaos and contradictions that make Isabella Lovestory who she is. In a sea of trend-chasing pop, ‘Vanity’ is gorgeously self-possessed, self-aware and emotionally complex in the most radical sense. Lovestory doesn’t want to be your fave. She wants to be your fantasy.