I’ll admit I didn’t have high hopes for Selena Gomez’s latest album, “Revival.” I’ve always been a fan of hers, from back in the days of Wizards of Waverly Place to her more mature roles. But in terms of her music career, I never really grasped a sense of who she wanted to be. I felt there was never a cohesive sound, but I enjoyed her big hits all the same. Yet, something was missing. With her latest album, she deems it a true revival – a transformation in both her personal life and in her music career. She opens up in a way she has never done before, co-writing almost every song and producing the entire album. We see her put her own mark on this album, and her hard work is paying off as it approaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Selena has struggled ever since her public split with Justin Bieber, providing the inspiration for many songs on the album. Even though their relationship was often the punchline of a joke or the news headline of a tabloid, I think we can all relate to what Selena has been through. She is around our age, after all, and deals with so many of the same things we do in relationships, and in becoming a woman. This album highlights all of that, the good and the bad. It’s about falling in love, and then falling out of it. It’s about sex, exploration, expression, and growth. We’re always changing and learning more about ourselves – and sometimes the people we love, they change, too. In one of my favorites off the album, she sings “Up in the clouds, you know how to make me want you. When we come down, I know that it’s over. You don’t know how to love me when you’re sober.”
Certain lyrics and songs really hit home, & they speak to us. It is almost as if our innermost thoughts are being spoken for us. We listen again and again, because we find ourselves in these songs. Going down her tracklist, it’s easy to see why. We’ve all been there bawling our eyes out at 1 a.m., struggled with that “Same Old Love”, or in not being able to keep our hands off someone. Her low, breathy vocals and sound tell a distinct story, and really, it is our story, too.
It’s the openness and the rawness of “Revival” that has made me believe Selena finally has gotten it right: “What I’ve learned is so vital. More than just survival, this is a revival.”