It pains me to say that Demi Lovato’s new album is a disappointment. It starts very well indeed with the two singles, “Confident” and “Cool for the Summer,” which are both fantastic, especially “Cool for the Summer,” which I initially thought was merely very good, but has entirely won me over with its bombastic drama. After that, though, the album’s insistence on being uplifting largely gets in the way of it being any good. “For You” at least fully commits with a windswept monumentality that reminds me of some of The Saturdays better moments. Most of the rest of the album is very X Factor, by which I mean its larded with generic signifiers of “uplifting”. This, ironically, shows a lack of confidence in Lovato’s abilities. Read more↴
At its best, Selena Gomez’s new album is absolutely brilliant, at least as good as anything she’s ever done. Selena Gomez has always seemed remarkably poised and careful in her public appearances, which in my mind has always given her an air of melancholy, and the best tracks here express that. The run of tracks from “Hands to Myself” to “Good for You” is particularly good at showing her strengths. Read more↴
I hear grime has been having something of a revival recently, but I haven’t been paying a huge amount of attention to it, at least not compared to 2004/5. I remember back then hearing Logan Sama on the radio playing a track featuring Shola Ama and saying something like “Shola Ama on a grime track? This music must be getting respectable.” I guess if Sama’s doing a mix for Fabric, then grime must be getting respectable again. It’s a good mix, too, ominous beats and energetic MCing. It’s maybe, though, a little bit one-note? Perhaps I’m just romanticizing the grime of ten years ago, but what I remember making it so exciting was its omnivorous influences. Read more↴
I guess Danity Kane were kind of the American Girls Aloud, in that they were a group that came together on a reality TV show but ended up being way better than that might lead you to think. Danity Kane never had the success of Girls Aloud, either commercially or in terms of their music, which was good but not life-changing. Since the band split, Dawn Richard has been making some great records, and now two other ex-members (Aubrey O’Day and Shannon Bex) are releasing music under the name Dumblonde. Read more↴
New Demi Lovato! The first 10 seconds are fantastic, and I’m not sure the rest of the record quite lives up to it, but still, that imperious bass noise is great. Read more↴
New Selena Gomez! I guess this is an album pre-order bonus rather than a single? It certainly sounds more like an album track, but it’s a good one, and it makes me even more excited about her new album (reminder that Stars Dance is a great album). When I heard that Selena’s new track was going to be written by Charli XCX, I was a bit apprehensive. Charli XCX is great, but her own recent tracks have a kind of performative brattiness that I’m not sure would suit Selena (even Alex, her character on Wizards of Waverly Place wasn’t exactly bratty, it’s more that she had a deep ethical and political commitment to queer anarchist surliness). But this works very well indeed, with the rumble in the bass and Selena’s performance giving the irritated boredom of the lyrics a dramatic desparation. Read more↴