Selena Gomez is Good For You

"Wrecking Ball" is an amazing song imo, but yeah i guess the chorus is the killer

definitely my fav Selena since "Love Song" - it's more convincing without the dead-eyed video imo

yeah, my fav since Love Song too

The more I listen to this, the more I like it (except the rap that still sucks and breaks the atmosphere and charm).
the "hmms" in the verses are great.
there's definitely something missing in the construction of the song to make it really great but it's very nice.

The video version's sparer and doesn't have the rap, I think it's prob better

oh really ? I have to check that then !

video is pretty cool. she is v v v pretty. "doin' my hair up real real nice" might be my favorite line

also that white t-shirt is Kate Moss/CK circa 1994 all over again.

OK, the video is nice and this is much better without the rap !
very exotic and sensual (which is a tour de force considering it's a very minimalist electronic track with processed vocals !).
It's a perfect hot summer evening track.
btw it made me think there's no big ubiquitous summer jam this year, is there ? (I mean "get lucky", "blurred lines" big level).

lovin you right now

i put in a good word for it on the summer jamz thread

the idea of a summer jam is primarily music industry horseshit fwiw

tbh i have considered that opinion carefully over the years and now steadfastly disagree. some songs just sound hotter, like summery. summer jams. summer jammy.

video is weird to me tbh. katherine's blurb over on TSJ which described it as like footage of when you're hungover and restless on the couch was otm

also just in terms of aesthetic the vibe i get from this is closer to shakira in ballad mode than LDR, especially when you consider "honeymoon"

not enough explicit criticism of the male gaze for me tbh

after listening to the video version, I'm not too sure if I prefer that even more minimalist instrumentation version or the single featuring A$AP one (not taking into consideration the fact that the rap ruins everything). Maybe the single's version without the rap would be the best. that said, the video version is pretty cool... hum... dilemma !

somebody else said Shakira to me but i don't really hear it. then again i don't really hear much Shakira in general (maybe i should work on that?)

mentioned this in my blurb but I hear jazmine sullivan's "mascara" and/or jojo's marvin's room cover

it's hard to trump jojo's marvin's room cover

if i ever wrote this or sang it like Selena i would die happy

this is not even 1/1000 as good as "mascara" come on

it's not a one-to-one comparison, just a similar feel and subject matter

this song is good but much prefer 'the heart wants what it wants', love sad-eyed selena

i will listen to it today.

I have no idea as to what she and whoever she worked with intended, but I think this is sad eyed Selena. "the heart…" seems to be "this relationship is fucked up, I'm miserable, but I can't help that this is what I want"—this was reinforced by the video, which includes an intro w/ tearful SG talking about the shitty things a paramour did to her, probly sposed to remind listeners of JB. But this is "I give up, I don't care that it's fucked up, I have no will anymore, go ahead and use me, I get off on being your toy." I thought she was singing "trust me I can take it," whereas what she actually sings is not much less submissive in context.

This is obv not a sentiment that, say, Jezebel would heartily endorse, but popular music does not and should not exist to reinforce correct notions of gender politics or any other kind, ones that anyone likely to read these words knows are healthy and would not wish the opposite on anyone they care about. I think the people who will respond to this song and might make it huge are not disaffected rock critics eager to foreswear Pitchfork, but are young women, girls (or boys/men) who hear and sympathize the numbness of the washed out chords and her hungover or narcotized delivery: maybe they've been where SG is evoking. It is like Jojo's adderall-ized performance mentioned above.

truly the ASAP verses compromise it…don't like it as much as other shit she's done ("Love song" is my fave) but it certainly made an impression on me immediately without me knowing it was her.

not enough explicit criticism of the male gaze for me tbh

lol

great post veronica. i do agree with you largely. but i also see less numbness. it is there for sure. but i also hear pure sex. and yes most of us have been there. wanting to look good for your boy is an old tradition. i hear that in this too. putting on your makeup, and doing up your hair. it's a girls' tradition, or a boy's tradition, and it doesn't have to be wrong, submissive, or numb. but i do agree that those inflections are present in the song. it is a fine line, but a beautiful one.

funnily when i just pulled up my Spotify to play this, the song that was cued up was "Numb" by Rihanna

no i think you're right, she's sad.

the production on the vocal "and syncopate my skin to how you're breathing" in the 2nd verse makes me realize that this is indeed the perfect song

z-100 is going all the fukk in on this tune…

this is shaping up to be one of those songs with strongly polarized reactions, where men tend to find it sexy and literally every woman I know who's written about it finds it sad

legit cannot stop listening to it

I like it a lot but it's superclearly sad

yea you're right. i have always had a thing for sad songs. MC writes a lot of em.

the saddest line is probably "so don't, so don't [ go ]"

i guess it's different for a gay guy to want to look good for a man than it is for a woman, but i don't consider it bad kind of sad.

Yeah it's all in the tone/delivery, like that's all she thinks she has to offer him/all he wants from her.

definitely a "feminist" talking point - and with such good production, definitely an invigorating viewpoint and song from the pop scene/Selena. i would wage a significant bet that her vocals, isolated, would be highly commendable.

the one thing that comes to my mind is that sadness can be sexy. i know you said the songs seems divided between the 2, katherine, at least in terms of reaction; but i think they are one.

*song

http://www.billboard.com/files/media/selena-gomez-revival-album-2015-billboard-650x650.jpg

(nsfw)

still love this song (the non rap/sparse arrangement version, of course !)
was it a hit ?

i don't know or care all i know is that it is one of the best of years past

thx for reminding me 2 listen to it 2day

oh and actually i heard it got to at least #7 on hot 100 America

it sounds like she's singing "goyim for you"

i look forward to collegiate a cappella groups covering this

this song would be boring if it weren't for the gross pandering to paedos lyrical content, ugh, sorry if you like it. It's just awful, maybe it's because I'm a 40 yr old woman idk.

ok i thought about it a little more, and maybe I should be more "sex positive" and think that if she's just playing at jailbait with daddy issues and she's actually an adult woman, then more power to her, and we understand it as "play" rather than read it literally. But the literal read, of "I am doing this teen jailbait schtick and singing about my daddy issues with a 6th grade vocabulary," sorry that shit grosses me out. There is too much of it in real life.

I don't get where the pedophilia comes in, she's 23

i am also pro-"lose you to love me" so i don't completely agree with alfred

xxp Thanks, dyl (Gomez does indeed have a songwriting credit on the track).

The production work on "Rare" is so fantastic, I think it deserves a breakdown (probably by someone better than me, but here goes):

0:00 - a little bongo trill fades in - the first thing you hear - telegraphing rhythmic elements that will reappear later
0:01 - that (acoustic?) bassline; that distant, muffled beat... the foundations of the track; love them both
0:18 - more of the rhythm comes in (bongos), but it's still not fully fleshed out
0:34 - the chorus hits, along with some additional background tones, and a more booming (but still subtle) bassline. And yet, the track's STILL not yet in full bloom, until...
0:51 - boom! the tinny trap-lite / calypso beat is in full effect - it's so lovely
1:08 - after the chorus, everything drops out, leaving just the acoustic bassline again
1:21 - echoing "ah-ahhs" and other backing vocal embellishments add to the mood
2:15 - great bridge... the song feels organic, each section flowing naturally from the previous one
2:42 - these ominous little background drones sound like they may have been inspired by Taylor Swife"Call It What You Want"(?)
3:38 - final bongo trill. fin.

The (excellent) guitar solo in 'Cut You Off,' I realized, reminds me of something from Haim's first album.

Is it just me or does anyone else think "Crowded Room" owes more than a bit to Cassie's "Me & U". Not a criticism.

lately i've taken to listening to "lose you to love me" on repeat and crying

Is it just me or does anyone else think "Crowded Room" owes more than a bit to Cassie's "Me & U". Not a criticism.

― daavid, Friday, January 17, 2020 9:28 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes i realized this on second listen of crowded room for sure

no thread for Rare on its own? Late pass but the deluxe version is gonna be top ten for sure for me.

I love the album

things i can pass on the deluxe album: lose you to love me, crowded room, sweeter place
things I love: everything else.

changemymind.jpg

This is my distilled / must-hear version of the deluxe album:

Rare
Crowded Room
Vulnerable
Ring
Cut You Off
Kinda Crazy
Fun

The new Saved by the Bell series apparently has some background graffiti saying “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?” — so the Selenators have got RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ trending

Just danced to "Rare" and "Ice Cream" in Just Dance 2021... pretty great