Revelacion EP - Selena Gomez: Review
Selena Gomez
is a former Disney child star and pop singer who at this point needs no real introduction. While never truly being an essential piece of the pop music sphere she has been a viable prescence for over a decade and is only now on this EP releasing an entire Spanish language project. With the singles leading up to the EP she projected not only a change in language but also a change in sound with her pop approach pulling much more from reggaetón and latin music than ever before.
Review By Lav:
Even though I've never been a huge fan of Selena Gomez musically I do like her personality and accompanying visuals quite a bit and its enough for me to always keep a casual eye on whatever she's doing. I was really happy to see her releasing music entirely in Spanish especially after how well it worked for Kali Uchis just last year. And while I am just as mixed on the EP as I have been for pretty much Selena's entire discography it does feel like a key step in her defining herself as an artist.
Thankfully the album has a trio of songs that I really enjoy and work as proof that this could be Selena's sound going forward. The first is the opening track De Una Vez a charming and lovely self-empowering opener with a strong performance. While the instrumental is on the airy side and sounds a lot like recent Camile Cabello, I still enjoy the song as a whole. Vicio is a real treat that sees Selena interpreting some flamenco traits into her usual pop sound with great success. The hook is tight and evokes its edgy love story with without being able to understand the lyrics without translation and the song stands out as a big highlight to me. Adios is the EP's most unapologetically upbeat track on the EP and would have fit in well on the back half of Selena's album last year. It's short, slick and charming with my only complaint being that it sort of ends out of nowhere.
Generally on this record whenever Selena isn't singing, the results aren't great. Baila Conmigo features a guest singer who is basically a way less interesting version of Justin Bieber and he pops up all over the track slowing its momentum to a crawl. He gets totally bodied by Selena and while I don't hate the song generally I do wish it was better performed. Damelo To features the same problem with a rapped verse that features absolutely zero vocal charisma. There may be something about it I'm missing with the language difference but even after reading the lyrics it just feels like a weak verses tacked onto what was already one of the EP's weaker songs.
Revelacion isn't revolutionary, in fact it shoots for being ultra-contemporary and definitely achieves this. Unfortunately that means the results are a very mixed bag depending on how derivative Selena is choosing to be at one point of another. With a couple worthwhile tracks and an interesting change in sonic direction there is definitely something here for fans to get excited about, but it has a lot of the same inconsistencies Selena's music has always had regardless of sound. 5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
I really like this cover. I think it's minimal but very elegant and editorial. The deep red is bold and that makes the fairness of her skin pop from it. That brings her to the forefront giving her all the attention. It does look a little beginner photoshop with all the assets just being posted onto the red background. It could've been integrated together into a cohesive environment and that would have made it more realistic. While I think it's successful without text there is ample opportunity to have added a signature or some elegant title into the blank space of the composition. 8/10
For more latin pop check out my review of Kali Uchis' Sin Miedo here
