I’ve spent years waiting anxiously for one of my favorite artists to release a new album, and it finally happened. Just a few weeks ago, Selena Gomez finally released her newest album titled “I Said I Love You First.” This album had a catch, however. She collaborated with her now-fiancé Benny Blanco for the entire album. Safe to say, many of Selena’s fans were excited to hear the news about this, including myself.
The day the album was released, I listened to the whole thing right away. To my surprise, I was actually disappointed by it. There had been so much hype and anticipation for this album—sadly, those expectations were not met.
One of the most jarring things about the album is how it sounds completely different from any of Selena Gomez’s other works. If I heard any of these songs on the radio without hearing the album first, I wouldn’t recognize them as being her songs. That’s saying something, as I’ve been a longtime fan of Selena.
Another issue I noticed is that there are a couple of supposed “songs” that aren’t actually songs and instead just appear to be voice memos or recordings from videos. I’m typically cool with an artist including a few things like this on the album. However, most artists put these as bonus songs. With how short the album is at only 14 songs, two of them being just voice recordings with no music is disappointing.
The other issue is that the songs are insanely short. Most of the songs barely reach three minutes. Normally, I’d be okay with this if there are either a lot of songs on the album or longer songs contained within it. However, this album does not have either of those things. In fact, the album itself clocks in at only 34 minutes total. After years of waiting, I was really sad that it took less than an hour to listen to the whole album.
I also think that a majority of the songs on this album sound way too similar. After listening to the album, I could not tell some of the songs apart and I forgot most of them the moment I heard them. Maybe the songs just weren’t my personal taste. I’m also not a music expert, so maybe they do sound completely different to most people but I just could not hear many differences.
Despite my criticisms about this album, I will say that there are definitely some good songs. Some of the highlights for me are “Call Me When You Break Up” and “Scared of Loving You.” Both of these songs are fun to listen to and are catchy. “Scared of Loving You” was super sweet and nearly made me tear up. “Call Me When You Break Up” also has shared vocals between Selena Gomez and Gracie Abrams; they sound really great together.
One nice change was that Gomez included a full Spanish song on her album. She has done this before in some of her earlier albums. However, they were typically reserved as deluxe edition songs and weren’t on the main albums. Her two most recent albums did not have any Spanish songs on them. She did release an entirely Spanish EP a few years back, but I liked having a mix of English and Spanish songs.
Overall, “I Said I Love You First” was kind of a disappointing album. This album was advertised as celebrating her and Benny’s love story while also being a thank-you to her longtime fans.
If that is the case, I don’t feel thanked. Still, I am a fan of Selena Gomez and hope that if she makes any more music in the future, it will only get better.