REVIEW #1: 78/100

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Selena Gomez has returned to the music scene with her newly released EP "Temporary Thrills". We're here to review the EP track by track and to give our thoughts on the EP and if Selena has decided to return in the best way possible or not.

 

Track 1: There Will Be Tears (75/100)

The first track is There Will Be Tears, a dance anthem if you ask me. Lyrically and musically the song is well executed, the lyrics all fit together very well and make perfect sense. You get your dance on while listening to this song, but for me the song is a little bit too long. At the end of the song, you have the first chorus being replayed two times and after that comes the second chorus for only one time, I think that should've been shortened. But, for the rest, the song is fine and a good opener to the EP.

 

Track 2: Dance (feat. Sabrina Carpenter) (75/100)

A collaboration on an EP, how exciting is that and how exciting is it that it is Sabrina Carpenter. Selena's and Sabrina's vocals together sound surprisingly good and is something you won't expect. The lyrics on this song on the chorus are very very very simple and do not add a lot if you ask me. The lyrics on the verses and bridge tells some sort of a story which is pleasing to listen to. Either way, the song is a good dance anthem just like the first and gets you motivated to walk on the dancefloor to get your dance on. The exciting thing of all is the bridge, you can hear how Selena is genuine and is having fun making this record.

 

Track 3: One More Touch (80/100)

This track starts off way more in a 'slower' tempo and grabs my attention right away, it makes me curious to know what is coming. This is the best song on the EP if you ask me. The lyrics are well thought out and almost sound dreamy. Nearing the end of the song it’s a repeat of mostly the bridge and the chorus two times. You can hear in the lyrics that Selena is wanting her lover's attention.

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Track 4: Temporary Thrills (80/100)

If you thought track three is grabbing your attention, just wait for this track. The beginning of the song is almost mysterious and made me feel like “wow, what’s going on here”, it grabs your attention and keeps you focused for the rest of the song. The lyrics are impressive and really makes sure you get to know Selena, even though she sings about love and seducing the lover, she makes sure that is not the topic on this last song, it almost feels empowering, knowing you’re not in love and just wanted to get a thrill out of it. The lyrics tell this perfectly and keep you focused on it.

 

The highlights of the EP are definitely One More Touch and Temporary Thrills. We can only hope Selena goes into this direction for her next album as this is what we want from her. She has done a great job with this EP.

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REVIEW #2: 83/100

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Making her comeback in stride, Selena Gomez makes her unprecedented return - clouding spooky season with a collection of songs ready for the dance floor. While the disco and synth pop genres have more than made their resurgence in the world of music in recent years, few artists have managed to properly harness the genre in their own works (namely Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Broken Heart Jukebox’ and Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Repressed Memories’ series). But has Selena managed to capture the magic of the disco ball in that same way?

 

Well, “There Will Be Tears”, the EP’s opening track, makes a decided claim to ‘Yes, she has’. The opening track is a powerful mission statement for the EP, immediately presenting us with a rich and dynamic disco beat, as well as a callout to the EP’s namesake from the very beginning of the song - which is cinematic and appreciated. Lyrically speaking, this song is possibly the best on the project, and for one reason alone - it knows just the line to draw between simple and dynamic. Disco is an interesting genre in that, if an artist is not careful, each song may blend into one and may coagulate into a mish-mash of songs that are saying, more or less, the same thing. Selena has worked away to craft a pop song here that is both catchy and light, but also tells a story, sets a scene, and it is incredibly successful, particularly in the song’s chorus where her lyricism is short, but ultimately, very sweet. Watch catches me the most here is the chorus melody which (either intentionally or unintentionally) harks back to the singer’s 2009 single ‘Naturally’ as part of Selena Gomez and The Scene, bringing a very nostalgic callback to her earlier work.

 

Selena adopts the help of major pop star and pioneer of the 80s music resurgence, Sabrina Carpenter, on ‘Dance’, and ironically, this song falls short as the weakest on the project. While the song isn’t bad by any means, it doesn’t possess the same dynamic quality as the rest of the project, and as a comeback EP, and a short one at that, perhaps Selena may have been best off representing her new voice alone.  ‘Dance’’s major pitfall is that it leans far too heavily into the stereotypes of a disco song, and rather than being tongue-in-cheek, seems to be a un-self-aware in that. The idea of dancing and dance floors etc, are a staple of the genre, and when done right, bring life to this style of music, however without careful thought on the theme can instead come across as generic and a little bit soulless. This song is not completely devoid of that sense of fun, but it doesn’t hold up with the rest of the project.

 

“One More Touch” is an interesting and refreshing switch-up on the project’s tracklist. When experimenting with a genre project like this, artists run the risk of creating something samey. Selena could have ended up here with four disco songs that all more or less sounded and felt the same, but this track is a great way at diverting expectations and bringing on a new sound. The song has a soft, romantic and groovy energy about it that is undeniably catchy and charming, and its overall sound is appealing, with gorgeous disco strings ringing through the background and a great vocal performance from Selena. This song does fall into the same pitfall of the previous one, with the same overdone themes of dancing, dance floors, but its done on this song in a way that’s much more palatable and doesn’t retract too much from the song its self.

 

“Temporary Thrills”, the project’s title track, adopts its role perfectly, as it is, in fact, the best song on the project by a long shot, and that’s not to say its so ahead of the other songs because they are bad, but because this one is SO good. Its catchy, its dynamic, its dark, its sexy, it’s everything it needs to be and it’s an absolutely epic ending to the project. More than that, this song also ties together the story that we follow the singer through across the other three songs of the EP, and brings a nice dark and bleak conclusion to this glittery tale of romantic tragedy on the dance floor. This song is an absolute perfect choice for Selena’s comeback lead single and almost seems to make up for any small faults the singer stumbled on across the other tracks.

 

This EP is a collection of dynamic and interesting disco songs that bring forth a brand new style and era for Selena, unexpected as it was and a far cry from her rustic, western sound with Emma Roberts as part of Strawberry Blonde - but I’m not complaining. While the album does stumble into a couple of pitfalls here and there, namely on ‘Dance’, the opening and closing songs more than make up for the minor slip-ups and the third sits somewhere in the middle. Overall, this is an admirable comeback from the singer and certainly leaves room for her intrigue in her future.