Disney Channel princess Selena Gomez and renowned producer Benny Blanco, now her fiancé, join forces on the singer’s seventh album, a musical ode to their love story. 13 songs on which the theme of love is explored from every angle. This is not the first time the two lovebirds have collaborated, as they have known each other for a long time and had already explored together on “Revival.” Moving from fun, teasing moods to deeper, more emotional moments (as well as a surprising Reggaeton detour), the album reveals little of their intimacy, for one that was made on the bed, in their bedroom.
Filled with the hottest sounds and textures in the mainstream, the collaborators include Finneas (Billie Eilish), Dylan Brady (Charli xcx), Cashmere Cat and Blake Slatkin, to name but a few. There are songs made for the track, such as the sexy “Cowboy” and “Bluest Flames” with its BRAT-esque vocal filters, where the influence of Finneas and Brady is very much in evidence, as well as others, such as “Younger and Hotter Than Me,” the provocative “How Does It Feel To Be Forgotten” and the syrupy “You Said You Were Sorry”, which could have found their way into the electro vault of a Lana Del Rey album. The influences of more recent pop explosion Sabrina Carpenter are not far away either, on the fun, bubbly “Sunset Boulevard” and “Don’t Take It Personally”, where playful, sexy allusions abound. Interspersed with spoken-word interludes, such as “I Said I Love You First”, an excerpt from a farewell speech emphasizing the artist’s evolution and transformation, and the spoken-word version of “Dont Wanna Cry.”
The album also features some stand-out tracks, such as “Ojos Tristes,” co-written and produced with The Marias, where Selena’s voice is like a fish in water, and “I can’t get enough”, a well-executed but surprising reggaeton pastiche given the album’s universe. The last song, “Scared of Loving You,” an evolving folk-pop soaring filled with light, brings us back to simplicity and essentials with Selena’s unfiltered voice and dry guitar, leaving us with the feeling that we’ve gone through the opus the necessary steps to reach this closeness and intimacy, glimpsed at the very end but to which we’d have liked to have had access sooner. In the end, it’s the beginning of the bond they share and immortalize here.
A finely produced album, with a strong selection of songs, despite an order that could have been more fluid, where the theme of love is tackled from every angle: jealousy, regret, insecurity, sex, fictitious rival, former girlfriends, fears, doubts, it’s all there, except for the closeness with them. A fine musical achievement by Selena and her partner Benny, which gives us a glimpse of what the sound of a Selena liberated in her creative choices could become, and reminds us why Benny is omnipresent in modern pop (Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber).
