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Sadie Bell from Billboard considered "Angel" as a "different direction" for the group describing it as "a bit harder than their [previous] releases." Madeline Roth of MTV News praised its production that "Angel" is "less poppier" than Fifth Harmony's previous single “Down", providing a "harder backdrop for their brassiness." Cameron Cook of Pitchfork website said that the chorus of the song sounds repetitive because the members haven not said much of "anything during the entire time." Aside the negative commentary, Cook also affirmated that "Angel" uses the trap instrumentation as "advantage" to do not become a bad song. Katherine St. Asaph from Spin deemed it a good record however, she felt the pitch-shifted vocal synth effect added by Skrillex sounds "dated".

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Background and production
Fifth Harmony's full length debut album "Reflection" was released in January 2015 through Epic Records and Syco Music. The album introduced the group into the music industry giving them credibility and popularity. Three songs were released as singles: "Boss", "Sledgehammer" and "Worth It" which became the most successful song to be released from the album, reaching number 12 on US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the group's best-selling song to date. The album was also supported by their first headlining concert tour called The Reflection Tour, with various live performances in the North America, Europe and Asia, as well as signing songs from Reflection, the group performed medley covers and songs from their debut extended play "Better Together" (2013). In 2015, they were honored with the "Group of the Year" award at the Billboard Women in Music event.

Due to the positive commercial performance and great accomplishments that year, Epic Records decided to push even more their career, managing new recording sessions for their sophomore album in September 2015. It was later announced that the album would be release in December 2015, however, the date was abandoned, so the group could focus more time recording and organizing the right material. In conversation with Brennan Carley from Spin, Lauren Jauregui revealed that the album would be out in "early 2016" and they were "putting final touches on it." In 2016, the album's release date was finally revealed (May 20th, 2016), although it was later announced that they would postpone the album's release date by one week from May 20 to May 27. The following day, digital music platform site, iTunes updated the track list with two tracks under the explicit label, making this Fifth Harmony's first release to contain explicit lyrics. Each track was announced hourly through the group's Instagram page on April 28, 2016.

Recording
In an interview with Billboard on September 21, 2015, Camila Cabello was quoted as saying that the group was about to start the recording sessions for the album very soon revealing that they had received various demos and they were "super excited" about some of them. After finishing the second leg of their summer tour in October 2015, they hopped back into the studio to start recording their sophomore project in Los Angeles, the group initially attempted in sessions at Max Martin's writing camp, where they worked with several music producers, including Martin himself, Lukas Loules, Dr. Luke, Mitch Allan and Jason Evigan. In studio with Martin, they would record four or five songs a day to experiment some sounds and vocal techniques. Concerning their working relationship with the producer, Lauren Jauregui commented that Martin was in "great spirit the whole time" creating a "good vibe for recording." As of November 2015, they had six finished tracks set to be on the album. However, for unknown reasons, they were ultimately removed from the final track listing. Only two songs created at MXM Studios– "That's My Girl" and "The Life"– were included on the final cut, both written by singer Tinashe, Alexander Kronlund and produced by Lukas Loules.



Searching for a more "soulful" and "emotional" project, the group wanted to focus their energy into songs about heartbreak and romance. Fifth Harmony also worked with Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, known collectively as Stargate, who had previously produced their top 20 hit "Worth It". They recorded a considerable amount of tracks produced by Stargate at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, two of them were further finished by Norwegian DJ Kygo who added his characteristic beat to "Squeeze" and "Write on Me." During the sessions at Westlake Studios, the group had more involvement co-writing "All In My Head (Flex)", a song initially developed by some songwriters who were also included in the production team that helped structure the album such as: Priscilla Renea, Simon Wilcox, Benny Blanco, Julia Michaels, Brian Garcia and Nolan Lambroza. American singer-songwriter Victoria Monét did the vocal production for more than half of the songs in the album.

American producers Ammo and DallasK created the lead single "Work from Home" with Jude Demorest, Alexander Izquierdo, and Brian Lee. The song came for the group after their A&R Joey Arbagey played it during a meeting to discuss the album direction, the members responded positively to the song after hearing it mostly for its "laid-back" and "chill" atmosphere that featured an "a kind of urban pocket". They immediately recorded the track at Windmark Recording Studios. "Not That Kinda Girl" was written by Aaron Pearce and Jared Cotter. After finishing the track, the group felt it as "incompleted", suggesting the presence of a rapper to fits the production, contacting Missy Elliot who accepted to write and record a verse for the song. Among the producers who worked on the album were the team The Monsters and the Strangerz ("I Lied"), BloodPop ("Scared of Happy"), Jack Antonoff (who wrote "Dope" with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter) and Tommy Brown ("No Way").

Title and artwork
The title 7/27 refers to July 27, 2012, the date that the group was formed on The X Factor. It was chosen based on their identification to the music of the album which the members felt as more mature and personal than their previous release, selecting a title that could represent their growth as a group. As Dinah Jane told Spin: "It's a side of Fifth Harmony that no one's really seen. In the beginning, we were super happy. Our first album was very jumpy. This time, we're showing who Fifth Harmony really is behind closed doors." The album's artwork and promotional pictures were shot by photographer Sasha Samsonova at a Californian desert, American stylist Zoe Costello designed the costumes, their hairstyle were by prepared by Clyde Haygood along with Randy Stodghill with makeup done by Mylah Morales and Clarissa Luna. Recounting her experience of being in all-woman set with Fifth Harmony, Samsonova said: "I love being on an all-girl set as it feels like a little family. When girls come together on set with an urge to create something great, there's nothing that can stop them."

The artwork features the group in a desert road with a black car on the background over mountains and a gradient blue sky. In an interview with Music Choice, Camila Cabello said that the group were "really excited" about the album cover and proud of the visuals on their photoshoot, because it represents their individuals aesthetics, describing it as a "kind of like a super glam fashion shot" [sic] that shows every member's specified style harmonizing around the others. The album's booklet contains solo pictures of each members posing in front of a gray t-top car. The title and the cover of the album were unveiled on February 25, 2016, on their official Instagram account, with the following caption, "We know there has been a lot of talk, but we wanted you to hear this from us... Our new album 7/27 is coming May 20th."

Overview
In conversation with Billboard, Epic Records' chairman and CEO L.A. Reid said that 7/27 reflected the music that was predominating and gaining strong space into the mainstream in early 2016 and previously in 2015, describing the album as a "modern" pop project, he also affirmed that the group was adapting their music to the current sound of radio at the moment, exemplifying the album Purpose (2016) by Justin Bieber and the music made by DJs Calvin Harris, Skrillex and Diplo. 7/27's production can be considered as more commercially viable than that of Fifth Harmony's previous album "Reflection". Representing an extension of their musical catalog, great deal of the album is drenched in EDM and tropical house, and like "Reflection", this album still incorporated urban contemporary music genres like R&B, hip hop and trap music. The album also features a funk-inspired track. Gerrick D. Kennedy from Los Angeles Times commented that the group explored more "radio trends on the bulk of the album," meanwhile, The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber added that the sound on album were becoming "very familiar to the average radio listener."

While "Reflection" was completely constructed over a feminist perspective using hip-hop and R&B as a support of its empowered content, 7/27 veers into a most soft side with midtempo ballads driven by acoustic guitar chords and minimalistic elements. However, as Matt Collar from AllMusic website wrote, 7/27 still contains the same "slick, contemporary R&B sound accented by a confident, feminist-informed attitude." The most tropical songs are crafted by the presence of elements from Caribbean music genres such as reggae, dancehall, soca music and ska through its beats and instrumentation. For Rolling Stone's writer Christopher R. Weingarten, the beats of the record are "mostly booming or bouncy "and the "swagger is all over the place." The album comprises a total of 15 tracks. Its standard edition features ten tracks while the deluxe contributes with two additional songs.

Songs and lyrics
The album's first track "That's My Girl" delivers a message of female empowerment. Its instrumentation includes "brassy horns, heavy bass, and an electronic drumroll." Gerrick D. Kennedy called the song a "horn driven bombast." The second track and lead single "Work from Home" incorporates elements of trap music with tropical beats. The song conveys a more sexual tone using "work" as a euphemism for sexual seduction through synthesized handclaps and heavy bassline. It contais a guest appearance by Ty Dolla $ign, who complemented the song's lyrical content using several sexual references. "The Life" has been described as a "danceable production, with a tropically-tinged drop building to a purely-pop chorus." According to Peter Meister from Sputnikmusic it contains "eurodance-inspired beachhead synths that zoom across the bustling bass whilst they're singing of how far they've come." Its lyrics celebrates self-love and lifestyle with Fifth Harmony singing about "getting down on a beach in Dubai.

A tropical house song, "Write On Me" has a characteristic soft production, blending acoustic guitar chords, pan flute synths, finger snap and tambourines. Lyrically, the song uses a human body as a metaphor to tell a lover to write their strengths, flaws and truths, exposing their true selfs to that individual. The fourth track "I Lied" is a upbeat trap song that makes heavy use of heavy kick drums, finger snaps and a minimalist piano during the pre-chorus and bridge. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy noted that the song "centres around high-pitched squiggles Diplo and Skrillex like to use." "All In My Head (Flex)" features hip hop recording artist Fetty Wap, and contains an interpolation of the 1995 song "Flex" by Mad Cobra. In contrast to the tropical sound of the album, the track blends reggae and pop music with elements of trap music. Additional instrumentation on the song includes a plucky guitar, synths and an industrialized percussion.

Another tropical house song, "Squeeze" is built on a rousing kickbeat and features the group harmonizing over pulsating piano notes and auto-tuned vocal samples. It has been described as "a breezy, generic foot-stomper." "Gonna Get Better" is a remake of Vybz Kartel's song "Gon' Get Better." It contains a pulsating dancehall beat backed by acoustic guitar, synths and snaps. The song serves as a female representation of Kartel's version, where the protagonist says that she won't leave her love interest for any other person. These interpretations are shown maily in the chorus: "I won't leave you for a money man/No matter what we go through." For Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic journal, the lyrics of "Gonna Get Better" finds Fifth Harmony singing about sticking with a guy even when he can’t pay for nice things." Matt Collar from AllMusic wrote that songs like "Squeeze", "I Lied" and "Write On Me" have a pleasant, midtempo, adult contemporary vibe. "Scare of Happy" has an uptempo beat that draws from soca and house genres with Lewis Corner describing as a "vibrant house-pop fizz." Lyrically, the track expresses vulnerability with the group singing about being scared of response a real love.

The tenth track "Not That Kinda Girl" featuring rapper Missy Elliot is a funk inspired song with 1980s synths that strung together with clinking clapping bass. Its retro sound received comparisons to works from singer Prince and Janet Jackson for similar aesthetic and throwback "funky" sound. The lyrics expresses a empowered feminist attitude with the group asserting that they are not "that kind of girls" and warn guys not to incorrectly classify them based on their attractive imagery. The verses from Elliot support their message: "See, I'm not the kinda girl you can freak on the first date/I'm straight, that's right, I'll make ya wait." The slow jam "Dope" features Jauregui bursting out "I don't know what else to say but you're pretty fuckin dope/just so you know" with contradicting emotion, culminating into spacial harmonies that surround and abide with the pulsating synths fixated all around. The deluxe edition of the album concludes with "No Way" where they sing over a tumbling beat and light electronic effects. It's a bit downbeat compared to the rest of the album.

Release and promotion
After announcing their album artwork for 7/27, Fifth Harmony released their lead single "Work from Home", which was performed for the first time at the annual post-Oscars show, broadcast by Live! with Kelly and Michael. Recreating the set of the music video and wearing the same costumes, the group performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 24, 2016. They also promoted the song at several televised programs such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and 2016 Billboard Music Awards alongside Ty Dolla Sign on May 22, 2016, following the event, they debuted "All In My Head (Flex)" during a special encore performance on Xfinity.

On May 20, 2016, they announced their second headlining tour, confirming 33 show dates in North America. Girl group's sophomore album to be release don May 27thTo commemorate the album release, they gained an exclusive, original emoji that appeared when the users hastagged "#5H727" on Twitter. In another effort to promote the album, they also hosted an event where they would be giving fans virtual autographs. The fans should tweet a photo of their of the album using the tag #SignMe, to win a physical autographed copy signed by the members. Fans who pre-ordered copies of the album via FYE received a wristband that gave them access to signing events on May 30th, May 31st and June 3rd in three cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco and London.

Their second worldwide tour, The 7/27 Tour, started on June 22, 2016, in Lima, Peru and advanced through its South American leg, visiting five cities in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. During the tour, the group appeared in some talk shows where they performed "Work from Home" and "All In My Head (Flex)." In July, they also visited Tokyo in Japan to perform at the Line Music Express eventfollowing the last show in Brazil. The North American leg began on July 27, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire in reference to their album title and fourth anniversary since being formed on The X Factor. On June 21, 2016, the group announced the European leg of the tour with 23 dates starting in Dublin, Ireland on October 4 and commencing on October 29, 2016, in Antwerp, Belgium. Following Camila Cabello's departure from the group, the group announced a new Asian leg for the tour which also visited several festivals and shows throughout America.

Singles
The album's lead single, "Work from Home", which was written by Joshua Coleman, Jude Demorest, Dallas Koehlke, Tyrone Griffin, Jr., Alexander Izquierdo, and Brian Lee. The music video, directed by Director X, was released on the same day as the official release date. It features the vocals and appearance by American recording artist, Ty Dolla Sign. The song debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number four in its thirteenth week, making it the group's highest charting single in the United States. Internationally, the song peaked within the top ten of twenty five countries, while becoming their highest-charting single in the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The second single All in My Head (Flex)" featuring rapper Fetty Wap was serviced to radio on May 31, 2016.ref name="impact"> The music video was released on June 23, 2016. The song debuted at number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at 24. Since its release, the song charted within the top ten of Hungary and New Zealand, peaking in the top twenty in countries such as Australia and reaching the top forty in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the single was certified platinum for selling combined sales and streaming of one million equivalent units. It was also certified platinum in Australia and Canada and silver in the United Kingdom.

The third and final single "That's My Girl" was serviced to contemporary hit radio on September 27, 2016. Since its release, the song peaked at 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold for selling combined sales and streaming of 500,000 equivalent units. The music video was released on September 19, 2016. An alternate music video was released on September 28, 2016, and features scenes from the web series DC Super Hero Girls and the movie, DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year.

Promotional singles
"The Life" was released as the first promotional single on March 24, 2016. It made its chart debut in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 97 on the Official Charts and number-one on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.

"Write On Me" was the second promotional single released on May 5, 2016. A music video for the song was released on May 6, 2016 on the group's Vevo channel and features all five members singing with spotlights on them while sitting down on stools in a black and white setting.

Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 7 reviews. Matt Collar of AllMusic was positive, calling it a "sophisticated production that finds the all-female outfit nicely transitioning from the brash ingenues who finished third on the second season of The X Factor into reliably mature pop divas." He noted that while 7/27 "isn't quite as loose or as fun as one might hope," Fifth Harmony prove they can balance "youthful swagger with grown-up sophistication." Praising the mature environment, Nolan Feeney of Entertainment Weekly named it "deep, vulnerable, personal--these were some of the quintet's stated goals for 7/27. It's not a bad look by any means."

Maura Johnston of Boston Globe stated: "The group's power has always come from its Spice Girls-like ability to form a massive unit of self-actualization, and the peppy 7/27 has no shortage of that, both lyrically and musically." Lewis Corner of Digital Spy noticed that "while the debut album 'Reflection' was a mixed bag in terms of styles, '7/27' is a cleverly structured collection. The uptempo numbers pop off with confidence, while the slower tracks barely detract from the overall energy of the record. There's sass, there's vulnerability, there's sexiness; it draws upon all the emotions a great pop album craves. Christopher R. Weingarten of Rolling Stone opined that the album "isn't a massive step forward, but with a constant bombardment of hooks, high energy and incredible harmony there's not much time to catch your breath to compare."

However, some reviews were not so positive. In a mixed review, Brian Josephs of Spin referred to "I Lied" as the song where the album "regresses into blandness". He also comments on how the group faced a "personality crisis" on Reflection that was not resolved in this record. Pitchfork editor, Katherine St. Asaph shared similar sentiments, commenting that several songs "suffer from brutally protracted lyrical metaphors that function as near-parodies of pop song form." St. Asaph states that the group fails to establish a "sonic identity, nor a lyrical identity beyond vague empowerment" and notes how the album "dutifully triangulates every trend and radio format of the past couple years." Conversely, she praised the group for their distribution of vocals.