Selena Gomez - Rare (Album Review)

Gomez's first studio album in five years showcases subtlely varied sonic influences conveyed in a delightful soft dance-pop formula, teaching how to be powerful in the most gentle and smart way.

The album starts with a vibrant african drum, paving the way to a mildly enjoyable title track, that keeps on doing its thing until the end. There are no particularly bright moments, Rare is an homogeneous song, the chord progression never changes throughout the different structural units, the chorus is not memorable and shows a pretty lazy composition, yet it accounts as for its opening track duties.  

6.3/10

Dance Again immediately feels more interesting. But it's when the electronic bass gets into a magnetic chorus that your brain is irrevocably infected in a sinusoidal groove. The second pre-chorus is the best part of the whole track, it creates a tension that is so satisfactorily solved by the second chorus. Fluid and groovy, this track has that something extra vibing that renders it as versatile as it could be part of Dua Lipa's upcoming 'nostalgia'.

8.2/10

Look at Her Now has a loopy tricky composition supported by smartly layered sheets of pads, basses and a sophisticated percussion section. It is not as fluid and efficient as Dance Again, but it manages to be almost as enjoyable as. There are enough elements to spice the trappish factor up in order to make it tasty and tickling.

7.7/10

Now at this point Lose You To Love Me doesn't make much sense. I mean, placing this type of ballad at track 4 after three synthpop tracks... I doubt it this the wisest choice in terms of track listing order. Talking about the track, it is touching and very impressive in a positive way. The production is awesome. The pizzicato strings are a smart choice. The song has a well thought climax, the choirs take over control in the last chorus, elevating the track at some celestial level as if they are giving the illusion that Gomez is a superb vocalist (we all know she kinda isn't). 

8.6/10 

Ring starts playing and I am even more confused about Lose You To Love Me's placement in the tracklist. A bass, a guitar and some snaps are enough to build another kinda loopy, lazy melodic structure. There are some slight exotic influences here, it would probably fit as a filler in a Camila Cabello album, maybe. It really does not leave anything memorable after the aftertaste of the leading single.

6.1/10

Vulnerable comes across as an ethereal ensemble of airy, mellifluous and plastic textures. Again, there are some compositive clichees, but the song is commendable for its harmonic brilliance. Vocals are coherent and well mixed within the instrumental, this track manages to keep its dynamism despite prolonged sounds, so that the final result is wavy and softly feminine.

8.0/10

People You Know has a quite memorable chorus. The main reason why it is memorable it is probably due to the strategy of giving the illusion of a pre-chorus suspense that simply flows in a repetition of the same vocal unit but with a change in all of the surrounding arrangement. Overall this track does not feel like a filler, but I doubt it can be marked as a grower, it might become tiring after only a few listens.

6.5/10

With Let Me Get Me we go back to the loopy tricky composition that characterized some of the previous tracks. There is a kind of marimba synth and a couple more elements that try to introduce some exotic influence in a very subtle way. At this point I can see that overall the sound of Rare is describable as soft dance-pop (similar to Revival, maybe a little more influenced by genres such as ambient and minimal house) but with a very light tinge of the hot-lands worldbeat sounds that were heavily present on some of her more past songs (such as Come & Get It).

7.3/10

Crowded Room again shows another variation of this formula: round synth basses, dry snaps, some loopy mumbles and a selection of wavy synths that serve as a medium between the atmospheric layer and the groovy layer. 6LACK's part is probably the best one, the introduction of the first featured artist come across as refreshing, a hi-hats line is more than enough to valorize his contribution. I can also feel the Bebe Rexha's songwriting touch here, even though it is far from being among her best works.

6.8/10

Kinda Crazy starts in a promising way with a dry guitar and the best percussion section heard as of now. Unexpectedly, everything fades in a pre-chorus made by a piano arpeggio. The best moment of the whole album probably comes in the following pre-chorus, where the piano is replaced by some kind of reversely expanding synths along with divine brasses. The chorus is probably the least amazing part of the whole track. Anyway, Jasmine Thompson won against Bebe Rexha.

8.4/10

Fun plays in a (duh) fun way with words, stops, times, notes. It reminds a little of the same tricks smartly used in the catchy Hands To Myself, especially in the prononuncing-title momentum. Unfortunately the bridge is not up to par with the rest of the... fun! going on. Not a big issue, though, given its brevity.

7.2/10

Cut You Off contains those ambient droplets that save the track by being a mere replica made of perpetrated constants. Slightly phased not-so-bass basses and a slightly distorted guitar solo are the icing of the cake that help in the making of this slightly less uninspiring that it would have been. There is an already-heard alert though: the uh-uh-uh melody is suspiciously similar to Britney Spears' Slumber Party.

6.7/10

A Sweeter Place is the closing track. Unfortunately, this happens to bear the least commendable production. The percussion is a bit too heavy, but the true issue here is the distorted fat bass that reminds me of early 2010s urban-house bangers (you know, The Cataracs, The Black Eyed Peas, something like that). Mike Dean was probably adopted as the ideal co-producer in order to give some urban vibes suitable for Kid Cudi's entrance. But again, something here does not reach the same level of the previous tracks and is out of tune with them. Sadly, the album closes with an unnecessarily long, unfocused, démodé filler.

5.8/10

So, overall, Rare is definitely more complex and smarter than the average soft-synthpop album à la Anne-Marie that was considered to be Gomez's channeling after her (rather dull) buzz singles and Kygo collab. Maybe more ballads would have gotten this album to reach a wider breathe (not to mention the odd position of Lose You To Love Me, which should have been swapped with A Sweeter Place for the most ideal solution). There is a subtle and praisable sophistication in the calibrated influence of different sounds, some of which are more exotic than others, or give the respective tracks a delicate aftertaste instead of a street-funk one or viceversa. The one thing I would say is a bit disappointing, is that with a so thoroughly studied and refined production, some of the melodies fall as extremely lazy. This contrast bewteen composition and production quality results in a few unefficient moments, fortunately counterbalanced by some sparks, here and there, made by some unexpected trump cards. Lyrically-wise, the album is comparably fluctuating. To a careful listener, Rare may sound like a bunch of different songwriters told to get in a precise comfort zone of stylistic architectures, set to refine what defined Selena Gomez as a precise kind of pop sound, and as a more matured but still occasionally flimsy lyricist.

Highlights: Dance Again, Lose You To Love Me, Kinda Crazy

Partial scores:

ASS (average songs score) = 7.2/10

Overall composition = 6.6/10

Overall production = 7.9/10

Overall songwriting = 6.8/10

Creativity = 6.8/10

Cohesivity = 7.0/10

The final score is obtained using the FUXYA FORMULA:

(ASS x 2 + composition x 2 + production x 2 + songwriting x 2 + creativity x 1 + cohesivity x 1)/100 =

 70.8/100

Rare's final score falls within the category pretty good albums. 

0-30: DISASTER

30-40: VERY BAD

40-50: BAD

50-55: PRETTY BAD

55-60: MEDIOCRE

60-65: JUST ENOUGH

65-70: SATISFACTORY

70-75: PRETTY GOOD

75-80: GOOD

80-85: VERY GOOD

85-90: EXCELLENT

90-95: VERY EXCELLENT

95-100: PERFECT