My thoughts on Selena Gomez's new album: Stars Dance

  This is the first physical album I've bought in a few years and I have to say that that was the best idea I've had in years.  "Stars Dance" by Selena Gomez really has me bobbing my head and singing along to the tunes.

  Technically, this is her first solo release so musically the style of this album is slightly different from her releases with her band The Scene but it still captures the essence and sound of Selena, instead of going full-on 180 like another certain ex-Disney princess.  With this album, Selena Gomez tries to sound and appear more mature while still staying PG-13 (no cuss words or many sexual innuendos).

  "Birthday" has not been officially released as a single, but seeing as this album was released on her actual birthday (depending on the region worldwide) the pop star uploaded an unofficial video to her YouTube channel depicting her 21st birthday party.  The song has a nice hook to it and would, well, be a great track to dance to on your own birthday. The phrase 'jazz it up!' is heard repeatedly throughout the song and makes no sense to me whatsoever. "Slow Down" is the album's second single and it's been rocking my playlist since I got it. The music video depicts Selena dancing to the song in a club and asking for the 'song to slow down'. Hmm. Still a great song.  Her choreography could use some work though.

 "Stars Dance" is the third track on the album and is the album's title track. (duh, right?) Lyrically, this should have been Bruce Almighty's theme song, but this is a great song nonetheless.  "Like a Champion" sounds like a Rihanna song.  It's great and very catchy but I honestly think Rihanna could have made it into a number-one song off of her upcoming umpteenth album. (No, she's not yet announced it but it's bound to come since she's released a studio album annually since 2009, 2005 if you count that one reissue) "Come & Get It" was released as the lead single months ago, with Gomez performing the song live at the MTV Awards.  I watched the performance and instantly fell in love with it as it was catchy and had that "na na na na" in it that every single song has to have these days apparently.  "Save the Day" and "Undercover" are a few highlights on this album that could make it as singles, hopefully.  I have the international deluxe version and I'm also thankful that for once the bonus tracks are actually different songs instead of just remixes because I hate those.

Selena Gomez are not that impressive and can be compared to recording artist Jennifer Lopez but musically, she has her own style and sound.  I hope that any future releases by Selena (probably 2 years from now, since she's going on hiatus again) will be as good as this record and I recommend anyone to go out to the store and buy it.

Alternatively, you can buy it from these online retailers:
iTunes
Amazon (mp3)
Amazon (CD)
Google Play
Target
Walmart (CD+DVD)
7digital
Selena Gomez store

If you want to listen to the album before buying, click here for an unfortunately pitched-down upload on Selena's official YouTube channel.