Selena Gomez, 'Revival'
I've never liked Selena Gomez, and I want to begin this review with this statement to make you know how much dispassionate it is. And I must say, this is the first Selena Gomez record I like.
"I dive into the future, but I'm blinded by the sun", she says at the beginning of the very first track of the album,
"I'm reborn in every moment , so who knows what I'll become". And thank God she was reborn, because she certainly starts to give all of herself in her
"Revival", just in time to give her best record, that is non casually her most introspective one. I feel like for the first time ever Selena Gomez started to really talk about herself in her record (a process that began with
The Heart Wants What It Wants), and you can feel it just in the way she sings all of these songs.
You can see it just in the way the album starts, with the title track, a really beautiful song, which has the only fault of having her vocals sort of overproduced on some points (like "my, my"), but it's certainly one my favourites.
She shows a large spectrum of her personality that you could really well think she didn't have listening to her past records: there's the sassy Selena, the broken Selena, the advice-giving friend Selena. It feels like she couldn't stop. Oh well,
I mean she could, but why would she want to?
Hands To Myself, gorgeously produed by Mattman & Robin and Max Martin is probably one of her best songs (while being my personal favourite), and it's really single worthy, so she should really think about that. It's catchy and clever, just like
Sober is, but in another way. This is the song where she wears her heart on her sleeve, and why didn't you do it before Selena? See how well it worked?
The singer reconnets with the world in the final track of the standard edition
Rise, that is so catchy and intelligent and the best way she could end the album with.
You can also see a lot of vocal work on this record, in the sense that Selena starts to play with her voice, she starts to be conscious about her limited range and she starts to use it in the best way she can. There's a lot of breathy vocals, that suit her so good, like in the already quoted
Hands To Myself, the fantastic
Good For You, that is really a highlight on this album, or like in the beautiful R&B-leaning
Nobody, which I think should've been on the standard.
Camouflage, on the other way, it's really a good ballad, even if it feels like it lacks a little bit of something.
Me & The Rhythm, also, is a great-produced song with a really cool melody.
But it's not all good in Revival, and you can clearly see the missteps she did, and she did many of them overall, but mainly on songs like
Kill 'Em With Kindness, that is a lot generic. There's also the latino-leaning song
Body Heat, which could be interesting... but it's clearly not.
Perfect it's everything but perfect, I feel like it lacks a lot. And then there's
Cologne, that is maybe the song from the ones that don't really give it that could have really given it. It has a lot of potential, some interesting lyrics, but it feels a little awkward. What a pity.
And shall we talk about
Survivors? Or the terrible
Outta My Hands?
Overall, a good album, and chapeau to Selena Gomez, who I'm beginning to like now (it's also the first album of hers I hear in full), who is showing her full potential and is on the good way to become a respected artist.
Vote: 7.2 on 10
