Listen: Selena Gomez's "Vulnerable"

The first big pop drop of 2020 is here, and it comes from Selena Gomez. Making her return after 2015's Revival (Who can forget Hands To Myself!), the third album — titled Rare — is an attempt at achieving mainstream chart success, while letting the world officially know that she has moved on. For anyone who has been keeping tabs on Gomez, it's well known that her personal life in recent years has been nothing if rocky. She left Justin Bieber for good after several shots at reconciliation, only to get entangled with The Weeknd's Abel Tesfaye, before calling quits on the relationship. She also battled lupus, received a kidney transplant in 2017, and checked herself into a mental health treatment facility the next year. Her career, in the interim, was marked by a steady stream of one-off singles, none of which find a place in her newest effort. Bad Liar, Fetish and Wolves came and went, but there were also a handful of chartbusters in the form of We Don't Talk Anymore and It Ain't Me.

All of which brings us to Rare. Layering sparse electronics and a slinky minimalist production atop Gomez's breathy vocals, the musical palette — mostly a rehash of an old beat perfected by the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen and Shura — is decidedly stripped back yet sparkly, mixing hooky choruses with chopped-up, manipulated vocals (People You Know, Look At Her Now). The Latinate Ring is an unfortunate bid to replicate Havana, while Lose You To Love Me is treacle balladry that offers little by way of new. The one moment of pure joy arrives in the form of Vulnerable, a mid-tempo bop co-produced by Jon Bellion that mines the same synth soundscape as Taylor Swift's Delicate and Cornelia Street for what's a gorgeous, melodic disco banger. Gomez may never venture to the cutting edge of pop — the commercial failure of Bad Liar and Fetish is ample proof — but one wishes there was more soul to make this stand out from a lot of other cookie-cutter pop albums that have made their way off late.