Selena Gomez releases “Rare”

By Gregory Sams

After four years of anticipation for a second album, Selena Gomez’s fans welcomed her second solo studio album titled “Rare” on Jan. 10, After taking an extended break, Gomez has returned with a brand new project and a unique sound. Her ability to captivate listeners with her voice remained strong on this album as she opens up about her life, experiences and what she’s been going through the past few years.

One of the most impressive qualities of the album is its vulnerability. Gomez opens up in full on the journey she’s gone through trying to rebuild the self love that she had lost over the years with bad relationships. From tracks like “Lose You to Love Me,” “Look at Her Now,” “Vulnerable,” and” People You Know” she opens up about how she had struggled to find herself again after losing herself in a past relationship.

The experimentation level of this album is also one of its most impressive qualities. No two songs sound remotely similar as she experiments with sounds, flows, vocals, beats and overall sound. While the album has its obvious stand out tracks that were made for radio play, looking at it with a deeper lens shows that it’s a complete story full of emotion, self love, growth, introspective themes and rebuilding.

It’s hard to pick out stand out tracks when each one is capable of standing out in its own unique way. That being said however, one track is able to break that idea. “Vulnerable” This track is somewhat album defining and immediately stuck with listeners. The track follows the vulnerability of giving yourself, emotions, secrets, and all and the questions and fear that can come along with that.

“If I show you all my demons, and we dive into the deep end would we crash and burn like every time before?” Sings Gomez.

“If I hand you my emotions, would you even want to take it?”

“If I give you all my trust, then would you fumble it and break it?”

It’s a solid standout track that would be surprising to not see turn into a single when the time is right. It’s introspective, personal, and contains a piece of each theme the album has been noted to portray so far. Mistakes and all, being accepted by someone else can be scary and this song embodies that perfectly.

The most important thing about this album however is her own personal growth – as an artist. Taking a look at her previous album “Revival,” there is a huge leap in lyricism, vocal ability and overall quality. While her past work was good, “Rare” is great and serves extremely well as an experimental pop piece testing the waters of what Gomez is truly capable of in the music industry.

It’s an album that requires being listened to a few times to be truly appreciated for what it is. Its uniqueness has the ability to catch listeners off guard, but in the end turns out to be a great listen.