As Selena Gomez continues to give listeners a sonic sample of what might constitute her next album, it’s plain to see she’s been in a “playful” mood of late. And it arguably started back up again with “Single Soon” (for, although her collaboration with Rema on a remix of “Calm Down” was playful enough, it was followed up by the melancholic aura of “My Mind & Me”). With “Love On,” Gomez expands on the universe of l’amour that she dissects on “Single Soon,” the former being interpretable as either a prequel or sequel to the narrative presented on the latter (even if unintentional—though if it were Gomez’s bestie, Taylor Swift, doing it, it would be very intentional indeed).
As for the “Love On” video, Gomez finds herself in familiar territory: lauding the French (which isn’t always an act that many are willing to partake in). Something she also did in the 2018 video for “Back To You,” a blatant homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou, with Gomez embodying the Anna Karina role of Marianne Renoir. In a similar fashion to that visual, “Love On” also starts with wistful-sounding, “old-timey” French music as the camera pans across a stairway inside the Villa de Leon in Malibu. A stairway filled with couples of all colors and creeds kissing while a nostalgic voice sets the French tone with, “Qu’est-ce que je vais te nommer? Amour. Amour tendre.” We then see Gomez amid the sea of couples with her own “man”: a French bulldog she holds in her arms while wearing a Del Reyian black bow in her hair and a bright pink dress. The first of many “couture pieces” we’ll see in the video, appropriately directed by Frenchman Gregory “Greg” Ohrel. The next one, as a matter of fact, is a blue halter dress paired with a cocktail hat as Gomez sits out on a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean amid other “merrymakers” who are drinking, what else, cocktails. The statue of a naked man behind them is also sure to remind viewers that they’re in France—by way of Los Angeles. Because, as Gomez herself stated, the video was inspired by the two months she spent living there while working on the “musical crime comedy” Emilia Perez. And yet, there’s something decidedly more “South of France” than there is “Parisian” about the visuals.
In another scene, Gomez gets meta with a close-up on the Ramon Casas painting entitled “After the Ball,” followed by a pan-down of her lying in the same position with a book and a black dress, just like the exhausted woman in the painting. In contrast to the reason why she might be exhausted in “Single Soon” (her emotions drained from having the same arguments over and over again), any reason she might be drained in “Love On” is likely to be strictly physical, if you take one’s meaning. Though she appears to have plenty of time for rest and relaxation as Ohrel then cuts to a scene of her in a white bathrobe and towel around her head (it’s very Madonna in “Vogue”), it’s probably just so she can restore her energy so as to “turn her love on” again. These days, that love is turned on for record producer Benny Blanco, a clear inspiration for the track (even if Gomez started working on it with co-songwriter Julia Michaels a while back).
As such, Gomez has plenty of lascivious lyrics, including, “I deserve an applause for/Keepin’ you up late/‘Til you can see straight.” This being reminiscent of Ariana Grande on “34+35” singing, “Watchin’ movies, but we ain’t seen a thing tonight/I don’t wanna keep you up/But show me, can you keep it up?” This in addition to Gomez channeling Grande on that song when the latter declares, “Baby, you might need a seatbelt when I ride it.” For Gomez, that translates to, “I’m a rollercoaster ride, baby, jump on.” Elsewhere, Gomez favors the Fifth Harmony method of making work analogies that double as sexual ones in the form of: “Clock in, baby, get to work/Night shift, but with all the perks/Time stamping when you fell in love/Time can’t mess with us.” And, because sex and food go hand in hand when it comes to indulgence and desire, there’s plenty of food play in the song and video, too. Chiefly, when we’re given a POV shot from the croissant’s perspective as Gomez downs it like a dick (after dipping it in her coffee, bien sûr). There’s also another scene involving ballerinas and French fries (the ultimate dichotomy). Lyrically, the main “foodism” consists of Gomez chirping, “Why are we conversing over this/Steak tartare, when we could be/Somewhere other than here/Making out in the back of a car?/Or in the back of a bar.” Gomez seemingly does have a thing for ditching the first location and doing something involving a car (if the “Back To You” video is anything to go by).
She’s also fond of ditching one outfit for another as we see her change into a retro-inspired look out of the 60s in a form-fitting, rainbow-striped mini dress and high ponytail before then switching into a balletcore frock and topping her head off with yet another ribbon (this one white)—surely Del Rey can’t abide. As night falls on the balcony, Gomez continues to radiate her effusiveness now that her love has been “activated,” dancing casually in a yellow gown with the fabric bunched into a rose shape at the center. Being that this is such a fashion-heavy video, it’s only right that one of the lyrics should be, “If you think about fallin’/Got you covered like garments.”
Needless to say, with Gomez being a Cancer, once her love is turned on, it might become overly smothering for some people (save for Tauruses, who can never get enough displays of love and devotion, especially if conveyed through decadence and food). Though maybe not a Pisces like Benny Blanco… If it does, however, Gomez can always revert back to her Sex and the City-esque single girl anthem, “Single Soon”—both prequel and sequel to a song like “Love On,” which speaks so overtly about the romantic, sex-drenched beginnings of relationships rather than the ends. Even though the French are skilled in talking about le fin de l’amour in their art as well (a skill that Taylor Swift, unfortunately, riffed on for the “ME!” video—so thank dieu Gomez came along to rectify that visual for her “better half”).
[…] Genna Rivieccio Source link […]