Almost a full three months after the release of the original project, Selena Gomez unveils the long awaited deluxe version of her return to the pop sphere, ‘Rare’. Whilst it built up gargantuan momentum and gruelling periods of demand, the album faced lukewarm reception upon release, and unfortunately aged like milk. The same constructs that made it this middle of the road, soulless and ultimately unidentifiable project only soured, as the album proved to have a limited shelf life, tanking in terms of sustained success through its deep cuts, and fading into continually growing void of bland pop without a trace. With the three additional tracks the deluxe brings into the equation, Selena hopes to rectify the blatant laziness and underwhelming qualities of the original and set the swarm of her ever growing fandom to ease.
The first of the new tracks, and the now introductory track to the rearranged album is ‘Boyfriend’. Unfortunately the track reveals that within the three month downtime rather than reinventing her sound and pushing her identity musically, Selena has in fact stuck with the same formulaic and bland pop approach that has plagued a majority of her catalog. The track’s production is built upon an isolated, sinister and jarring synth that pulsates throughout the song, being the omnipotent conveyer of the song’s attempted minimalistic chilling feel. Selena’s vocals fall flat, playing out again as the most bland and lacklustre element of her music. Her attempted sensual and unsettling almost whispered performance not only feels uninspired due to her lack of character and individuality as a vocalist, but additionally feels like a criminally shocking attempt to replicate the despair and unnerving sounds Billie Eilish so effortlessly basked in. At times the track sees her vocals consumed with vocal synthesisers that go the extra mile and remove any and all sense of authenticity. This is bland and derivative music at its finest, as Selena attempts to craft this facade of dour, dystopian track to mask her phoney, uninspired lollipop pop.
Selena continues her venture down the unnerving, minimalist approach with the second of the newest tracks, ‘Souvenir’. Vocally taking a whispered ghostly approach Selena again disappoints with her inability to truly bring out the necessary ghostly and harrowing qualities to sell the sound. The track truly goes to show the lack of versatility and depth Selena has as a vocalist, with her attempts here not being nearly as invasive and haunting as that of an Eilish performance, nor does it withhold the same elegant and sorrow filled projection the same way the vocals of Lana Del Rey would. The production is awfully thin and lifeless with its murky and muddy keys and synths creating a flavourless sludge that muddles the track, mixed with quirky and glitchy synths breaking the attempted immersion within Selena’s desired dream like paradise. The lyrical content of the track is far from ground breaking. Whilst humbled and sentimental, a break desperately needed from her otherwise preachy, whiny and at times petty substance matter laced throughout the original track listing, Selena fails to truly bring anything new to the table.
The final track amongst the new additions ushered in to compile the ultimately unnecessary deluxe version is ‘She’. A song that’s production is built upon a jarring syncopated synth melody that creates an awfully awkward and clunky basis. It pulsates and moves in such a way that it acts as a point of contention and conflict with the rest of the song, adding character, albeit a clashing force, but recognisable and unconventional nonetheless. The additional layers within the instrumental all mesh together to create this shapeless body lead by murky synths, nothing is pronounced enough within the mix to leave a lasting impression, leaving little room for the vocalist to hide. Selena’s breathy and moody vocals come off as a pouty millennial whine, but more importantly is yet another track in which she ultimately sounds uninterested, uninspired and flavourless. Credit must be given where it is due, during the bridge the track devolves into these heavenly and ethereal background vocal refrains, a welcomed fresh breath of air amongst the soulless qualities that stain this track. The lyrical content of the track feels far more focused than her past endeavours, describing a theoretical third party observer reflecting upon and critiquing the questionable decisions of a fragile girl, presumably Selena herself. Out of the three tracks, this feels like the least offensive as well as the one that offers the most in the way of individual and brief shimmers of hope and potential.
It’s important to note that the addition of these new tracks weren’t the only modification brought on to create the albums deluxe edition. Alongside the painfully bland and derivative new cuts was the reordering of the track listing. Not to sound like a writer with the intentions of making this a tailor made hate piece towards the artistic intent and direction of Gomez, but the alterations made to the final version of this album feel like a poor oversight, with the original both formulating its character and narrative development through the middle of the album and coming to a far more sound and logical conclusion sonically. With perhaps the greatest misguided revision being the album’s conclusive track. Now ending on the track ‘Feel Me’, the deluxe loses those final bittersweet moments of realisation and hope for a better future that were so richly drenched in this ethereal and intoxicating manner, a sound so deviant from the rest of the album as well one that thematically and conceptually conveyed the necessary growth and positive mindset to wrap the album up.
Whilst the newest editions to the deluxe version of her comeback album aren’t particularly amongst the stand out worst, they instead add to the pool of forgettable, bland filler that is not just present across the album, but that notoriously defines a majority of the material within Selena’s catalog. The inclusion of the three new tracks fail to add anything in terms of quality and revision, hinting to the fact that within the break period, Selena’s efforts to advance her sound and evolve have simply become nonexistent. They can be described largely in the same way a lot of the material that was on the original album can, uninspired, derivative and most importantly aid to the notion that Selena really has nothing in her arsenal that sets her apart from a million other budding pop stars. This is the same lacklustre formula she has used and applied time and time again, only with an added coat of colour to hint at a failed attempt to incorporate dark undertones to her otherwise shapeless and nameless sound. Whilst I had hoped for a better turn out and a more revised, concise and original showing, Selena instead confirms her inability to craft for herself a pocket in which she can truly call her own.
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