It’s said that everything sounds better in Spanish. And it’s not untrue, even if probably considered “fetishizing” in this climate. Luckily for Gomez, she has Mexican heritage built in that she’s been waiting for years to finally capitalize on. The time has now come in the form of a seven-track EP called Revelación (because pushing it to anything beyond that amount would have required far too much studying of the language).
Having already set the tone for the album with “De Una Vez,” Gomez establishes an ethereal, reggaeton-prone vibe with her Spanish sound. After the slower-paced rhythm and set me free themes of this opener, Gomez picks things up with “Buscando Amor.” As a song title that translates to “Looking For Love,” the upbeat tempo is well-suited to the attitude of not really looking for it. Of being perfectly okay with singledom (a far cry from last year’s “Boyfriend”). Some of the lyrics to prove that point include, “They get lost in the rhythm, they start to forget/They aren’t looking for anything, they’re good how they are/Don’t talk to her about love, that’s not going to fly/Thеy go out so they see that they like to dancе.”
Losing oneself in the music and delighting in the escapism of that now quaint notion–a dance floor–is a persistent motif on “Baila Conmigo.” The video for which also proves Gomez’s declarations on “Buscando Amor” in theory, but not in the storyline presented. For in it, two Brazilians fall in love over their shared obsession with a Selena Gomez song (and yet somehow, the guy in the heteronormative permutation isn’t gay–which just goes to show how much more in touch with their so-called feminine side non-American males can be despite American ones being, fundamentally, “little bitches”).
“Dámelo To’” featuring Myke Towers (best known for his recent collab with Anitta and Cardi B, “Me Gusta”) ramps up the danceability of Revelación even further. The most reggaeton-tinged beat yet, Gomez continues to chant about how her name is in her lover’s mouth–presumably, for the purposes of this song, that can be Myke Towers, who adds in his own lines, “A mí me gusta mencionarte/Con la voz sexy que pongo pa’ impresionarte, ey/Te gusta tarde llamarme/Voy a tratar de calmarme/Mucho respeto/Si me tienta no me aquieto/El trabajo no se deja incompleto.” In English, it translates to: this guy gon’ get rapey (a.k.a “If it tempts me/I won’t calm down”) if he feels like it. Again, it’s best to keep things in Spanish so the sensitive gringas can’t understand.
During the creation of Revelación, Gomez referred to the times she mentioned wanting to work on a Spanish album, insisting, “This has been something I’ve wanted to do for ten years, working on a Spanish project, because I’m so, so proud of my heritage, and just genuinely felt like I wanted this to happen. Just with all the division in the world, there’s something about Latin music that globally just makes people feel things, you know?” That’s code for: it’s time to profit off being more culturally relevant than ever. But where was her love of her heritage all those previous years she could have been perfecting her Spanish? No matter, because with the luxury of hiring a language coach to help her cultivate a believable accent (and therefore make Hailey Bieber come across as even more of a basic bitch now related to someone who pretended to be Spanish for a decade), it’s practically as though Gomez has been fluent for most of her life.
With “Vicio,” Gomez hits her stride via a song that’s almost too bittersweet to listen to, for it reminds one of being somewhere like Ibiza (or just full-stop Ibiza, because what other place can provide such iconic dance parties?) and letting an island breeze gently caress your face before sucking down another sangría and hitting a randomly available dance floor in the middle of the day. Gomez declares, “Your lips are my vice/I’d risk it all for one of your kisses (I’d risk it all)/And your heart beats with mine/It’s the perfect tempo (Perfect)/Kiss to kiss/I realized that I need you just like yesterday/I want to have you just as you are.” See? Some vices are chaste enough while still being completely detrimental.
The second to last song is called “Adiós,” surprisingly not the final track, for perhaps that would have been “too obvious.” Asserting, “I already forgot you/Goodbye” after a fuckboy tries to contact her at three a.m., Gomez continues to embrace this whole “would rather be single than stuck with trash” philosophy. She adds, for good measure, “It’s because I don’t want drama anymore/I want to go to bed, with whom I want.”
This sentiment ties in perfectly to the concluding track, “Selfish Love” featuring DJ Snake. While the Rodrigo Saavedra-directed video finds Selena as the proprietor of a magical realism-inspired hair salon (it’s sort of like if Amélie was running a business in Harlem), the song’s bilingual message addresses, “All this time and we still got that selfish love/You like making me jealous.” Even after everything, it’s an admission that could still easily apply to Justin Bieber. But no, it seems Gomez has moved on to bigger and better things, both personally and musically. Here’s hoping her next record has the courage to go full-length Spanish speaking. Because is your name even worthy of being Selena if you can’t easily cross between the Spanish-English language borders when the moment suits you?
