Music Review: Selena Gomez - Revival 9/10

If you have read this blog much or know me at all, you'll know I love Selena Gomez. I just love her. She is beautiful, talented and this album is an embodiment of those things and more. As always, I am going to review the deluxe edition because I feel like the bonus tracks are always my favourite and in this case, they are. 

Revival has an incredible 16 songs to immerse yourself in, it is the kind of album you can can listen to alone and sing along while feeling like a total diva. 

1. Revival

As the album opener this song works really well. It begins with Selena breathing her way through a paragraph about being reborn, it is super cheesy but somehow works really well. This album shows huge growth for Selena as an artist but also as a person, the lyrics through out emphasis this which sets the albums theme perfectly. The song itself is relatively slow paced and gentle, very repetitive but in a good way. 

What I've learned is so vital
More than just survival
This is my revival, this is my revival
This is a revival

2. Kill Em With Kindness

Another relatively slow paced song with enticing whistling through out. The chorus is mostly just whistling with "kill em with kindness" repeated over and over with a gentle but dance orientated beat. I really love this song, it is really relaxing and beautiful. It also has a pretty great message.

Your lies are bullets
Your mouth's a gun
And no war in anger
Was ever won
Put out the fire before igniting
Next time you’re fighting

3. Hands To Myself

I love this one. It is a definite favourite. The way Selena uses her voice in the pre chorus is different territory for her but it is really intriguing in a great way, the pre chorus is a little show stopper that leads onto an equally lovely chorus. It is again a calm song but it somehow still has a powerful feel. 

Can't keep my hands to myself
I mean I could, but why would I want to?

4. Same Old Love

Same Old Love is a great song (reviewed a few weeks ago) but I fail to see why it was released as the albums second single when there are so many better options available. It is an addictive song that will get stuck in your head but I stick to my previous review that it doesn't feel like Selena and it is overly receptive. Don't get my wrong, I love it but its not the albums best offering.

You can't believe, still can't believe it
You left in peace, left me in pieces
Too hard to breathe, I'm on my knees

5. Sober

Sober is both upbeat but also a kind of ballad, to me anyway. The lyrics are beautiful, they sing of being so in love with someone who can't love without the help of alcohol. I think she is talking about someone not with a drinking problem but someone who has a problem showing feelings so the only time she glimpses his love is when he is wasted. The lyrics require a good listening too to understand exactly what is being said bit it's worth it. A really great song.

You don't know how to love me when you're sober
When the bottle's done you pull me closer
And you're saying all the things that you're supposed to
But you don't know how to love me when you're sober

6. Good For You 

Good For You was the first single from this album and it was a great choice. Not because it was the best song but because it is the most addictive on first listen and it really does embody the rest of the album. This song will have brought Selena a lot of new audience as well. Which she deserves.

This song is a slow building masterpiece of sexy lyrics and breathy vocals. 

Gonna wear that dress you like, skin-tight
Do my hair up real, real nice
And syncopate my skin to how you're breathing

7. Camouflage

So far the albums theme has been pretty mellow but this is the first real ballad on the album. Selena's ballads of past albums have been good but not her stand outs and the same theme is present here, although this is an improvement. I just feel like the song lacks depth in the lyrics and it is a little boring and repetitive. Still a great song but definitely one of my least favourites from the album.

Fortress around my heart
You were mine just yesterday
Now I have no idea who you are

8. Me & The Rhythm

I love this song, it is a real upbeat dance track with a huge Kylie Minogue feel. It is fantastic to turn up loud in the car and scream along too, the song is sexy and flirty. It feels like it could have been on her Stars Dance album which I loved, so it is nice to have a little of the old Selena still on show. 

If you feel like you're the spark
Then come out of the dark

9. Survivors

Another relaxing dance song, the chorus has a gorgeous chiming sound that is really hard to explain but it gives the song a really modern and smooth feel. The lyrics are lovely, they have more depth that the song initially would suggest. It is a real sing along track and I am in love with it.

ou built me from a broken heart
With bricks you made from broken parts

10. Body Heat

Body Heat genuinely sounds like it could be a Jennifer Lopez song. Which is a comparison that will come up again before the end of this review but in this case I like it. The chorus is crazy addictive to the point that I sang the same line over and over again for days, I even started to annoy myself. 

My red lips have found a new obsession

11. Rise

I wouldn't be surprised if this song ends up on a Disney Soundtrack, especially the first verse sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in the Lion King. The chorus sounds fully Selena but then the speaking bridge sounds like All Saints. Its a really odd combination but somehow it does work. Ill be honest in saying that it is not my favourite on the album but there is no denying that it is a great song. 

So even when your bones feel like weights
And it’s hard to lift the smile on your perfect face
You can still find a peaceful place

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks

12. Me & My Girls

This is the only song on the whole album that I just don't like at all and it is the only reason why I didn't rate the album a 10. Again, it sounds like Jennifer Lopez but mixed with Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo and Miley Cyrus. It is a real strange mix and i'd would be interested to see if other people see these comparisons or if it's just me?! It just doesn't do it for me.

Never felt more, more alive
I got my chicas by my side

13. Nobody

Now begins the string of incredible songs that really should have been on the main edition. Nobody is a gorgeous ballad with breathy vocals and claps through out, Selena really shines here and for me this is Selena at her finest.

No kiss, no lips, no feel, no rush
Can you keep me high, I swear no one
Can love me like you do, can love me like you do

14. Perfect

Perfect is the best song on this album, it is incredible and I am head over heels in love with it. It is the most beautiful song I have heard in forever. I think the song is about not a cheating boyfriend like it may seem at first but a girl who is in an open relationship with a man that she wants more with. I feel like the girl is feeling insecure because she wants this man all to herself but she feels the other women is better than she is and she doesn't stand a chance against someone so perfect. I think it is a song that could be read in a lot of ways but that is how I read it. 

The song has an early 2000's feel to it and it is, well, Perfect.

I can taste her lipstick and see her laying across your chest
I can feel the distance every time you remember her fingertips
Maybe I should be more like her

15. Outta My Hands (Loco)

I don't know why I love this so much but I do. It just makes me want to sing, dance and generally just get up and go crazy. It is an incredible song that simply should have made the main track listings. 

They say you shouldn’t sleep with
Someone crazier than you

16. Cologne

This is the last song on the album and it finished the album off on such a perfect note. I like the think that this song is about the man from "Perfect" I feel like she is singing about how she feels about this man, how he makes her feel and how much she wishes he would see this and be there with her. It is a beautiful song that sees Selena completely smashing the ballad. 

In my room, from the ceiling to the floor
My body knows that you've been here before

My only complaints towards this album is that Me & My Girls shouldn't be here and that the bonus tracks are the best songs on the whole album. It makes me sad to think that Selena and her label didn't feel these songs were good enough for the main edition. Overall, I am more than impressed with this offering and it will definitely be on repeat in my car for many months to come. At least till christmas. Let me know if you have the album and are as in love as I am! 

Also, how incredible is the album art!