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girl4music · 7 years

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The 6th studio album from Demi Lovato is here and it’s ‘Tell Me You Love Me’. I made sure to give this a good listen a couple of times through so I could get all the details down of what I wanted to say about it in my review. I heard it on a rushed initial listen and I disliked near to every song on it because of the musical production. I didn’t like how dead and dull the beats sounded. But later I found out that the production did not actually sound that bad, I was just listening to it through earphones that had a broken right ear and I did not realize it. Musical and vocal production is most important to me when it comes to the music. If you have not got that right, then you haven’t got anything right. If the musical production is bad, then it’s all going to sound bad. If the vocal production is bad, then the singer is going to sound bad, no matter how well they performed in the studio. Clarity is key when it comes to both kinds of production. I need to be able to hear everything that’s going on in that track. All the detailed nuances and dynamics in instrumentation. Of course how it’s mixed and mastered plays a huge role into how it sounds on the final cut but it’s mainly the producer that has the job of making sure the track sounds clear so that everything is equalized. These days though the producer also mixes and masters the tracks, so they are pivitol to the finished release. When it comes to the vocal production, that is also extremely important. Especially how the vocalist phonates the lyrics. How they convey their thoughts, feelings and emotions to the listener so you can better understand the story or concept behind the music. Demi is very good at that in general, and on ‘Tell Me You Love Me’, it’s truly what sells it.

This is a track by track review where I talk about the specifics of what I personally picked up both negatively and positively about each track and how I rate it based on those opinions. I’m not your average reviewer. Those of you who read my reviews already know that I am a subjective one. I only draw from my own perception. Everything I see, hear, feel and know about the music is what I talk about. I do not talk about sales, charts and awards. I don’t talk about numbers at all. So if that’s what you’re expecting, you should move along because I never do that. I do not consider it a necessary thing to talk about. But what I do consider necessary to talk about is the music itself and how the artist/band has grown from their previous efforts. What has improved and what has decreased. This shows their development as an artist and that has more benefit to them than me just praising them for the success they’ve already achieved. I attempt to give them critical acclaim through constructive and unbiased criticism. So I will do the very same with this review. Here we go…

1. Sorry Not Sorry

The debut single to ‘Tell Me You Love Me’. This song is a great summer song. She released it at the right time and makes her market. In several interviews Demi talks about how she was the only one that wanted this track to be the first single and that nobody else on her team agreed with her and would of much rather chosen the title track ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ instead. Until she went to seek out the advice of Jay Z at Roc Nation and he told her that she was right. That it should be the debut single. That was what made the debate settle and they went with ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ as the first single of a whole new era for Demi’s music.

I think they made the right decision. It’s a great song. It has it’s pop vibe for radio to latch on to but it also showcases the soulful side the album is offering. It features a choir as many tracks on this album do. It’s sort of an intentional set theme Demi wanted to go for with it’s soulful/gospel style. It’s got a very catchy chorus, something you will sing along to, if you can. Demi’s songs are always difficult for even a classically trained singer like myself to sing to, let alone just anyone. I want to point out how interesting I find the techno bass vocal effect that’s in the track. She uses this effect quite a bit in this album and it’s interesting to me because usually I don’t like this kind of thing in music. Modulated/pitch-shifted vocals usually puts me off. But I actually quite like it in this album. It gives it edge and attitude and it contrasts well with the gospel choir, making it compliment the track overall rather than destroy it. There is too many songs out there where even small things like that can make or break the song. It was a risky decision and it payed off for Demi.

9/10

2. Tell Me You Love Me

‘Tell Me You Love Me’ is the title track of the album and as previously mentioned earlier, was supposed to be the debut single for it. It’s a great song that really shows just how soulful Demi wanted to go with this album and I think that’s why her marketing team were fighting for it so hard against Demi. But she argued that people know her too much for this kinda thing when it comes to her music, so she wanted to prove to the public that she can also be a party girl. She’s versatile and I absolutely LOVE that about her. It’s a big reason why I am a fan.

This track brings in a Jazz band. Horns and brass instruments are heard sounding out in the intro and they have a prominent existence all throughout the entire song. It makes it sound sophisticated and mature musically and sonically and that’s something Demi definetly wants to have if she’s trying to get The Grammy’s attention. The drums that make their way into the track at the chorus are real drums. Big deal for me. I’m tired of hearing drum machine beats. I love the sound of a real drum kit. Demi’s vocals go for the goals with hitting those high upper-belts that she’s known so well for. Upper-belts are her trademark. You know it’s Demi when she’s hit about 5 F#5′s consecutively in the same breath without even so much as a stagger in vocal control. Yeah, to say I’m jealous is an understatement. She said she’d give us an album that showcases other sides to her massive vocal capacity, and she does, but you just come to expect the powerhousing alongside it and think nothing of it. It’s just what she does and she does it very well. For musical production and vocal production as well as vocal performance this makes it one of the best songs on the entire album for me. It scores as high as her voice.

10/10

3. Sexy Dirty Love

Initially I did not like this song but it’s grown on me with every listen to it. It’s a grower track. It’s an infectious disco tune. Like something you’d get from Donna Summer back in the 70′s but with more modernized musical and vocal production. Using the techno bass vocal effect gives it that updated pop production as well as the electronic bass and drum beats. Demi’s proved she can do fast-tempo music with her cover of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ for the soundtrack to The Angry Birds Movie. She’s never really done disco for her own music though. It’s very different for her, but as usual, she smashes it because she’s just that vocally versatile. Although, not a favourite from this album or really anywhere close, it gets respect and praise from me for her experimenting and trying something new which furthers her development as an artist.

4/10

4. You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore

Now we get on to our big power ballad. ‘You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore’ is gorgeous vocally. Demi finally uses her falsetto register to a degree where it’s clear and consistent and her voice is not wavering around. She has good control of it, proving that she is fully capable of singing in head voice whether recording in the studio or live in performance. She just needs more practice with it. The tonal quality and brightness of her head notes are stunning. A beautiful and light timbre that’s perfect for singing R&B/soul music. Because in soul more than just the modal/belting registers are needed. R&B is about the vocals being used as an instrument. Everything is about vocal capability. It requires flexibility and dexterity. It requires a mixing technique where you can go from head to chest voice easily and fluidly. If you haven’t got that or you can’t execute your vocals to do that consistently, then R&B is not right for you. This is the only reason I was skeptical of Demi going R&B. Not that I doubted that she could do it. I had all the faith in her. I just wanted her to prove to me that she was ready to. This track is what cemented it for me that she can and she will succeed as an R&B/soul artist. I 100% believe that all she needs is more vocal training. I want to see her perform this one live without changing her voice to chest when she has to do the falsetto parts or avoiding the notes completely. Whatever weakness she believes she has is all in her mind. She is capable of it physically, she’s just doubting herself and hesitating when it comes to actually executing it in performance. If she can do it in the studio, she can do it live. No excuses.

As for the musical production, it’s old-school style instrumentation. Lots of violin and cello. It’s got big strong kick drum beats that give it a really dramatic feel. It’s very reminiscent of ‘Stone Cold’ from her last album ‘Confident’. The lyrics, and I don’t often talk about lyrics, are very interesting. Demi has confirmed that while the song sounds like it’s about a breakup song with a lover, personally for her, it is not. It’s about her breaking up with her old self and saying that the alcohol and the drugs don’t do it for her anymore. Of course you can interpret it any way you like, but I think this is a very interesting take on the song. Self-reflective lyrics are something I would resonate with or relate to more than if it was just about a relationship going down in flames, which Demi leads you to believe it is about when she refers to what she’s singing about as a “who” instead of an it. Clever multi-perspective lyrics. I am very impressed with her songwriting on this. The fact it is so brillaint musically, vocally and lyrically make this song the epitome of the album. The highlight of the entire body of work that she’s created and put together.

10/10

5. Daddy Issues

This is my least favourite track on ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ because of it’s messy electronic production. Her vocals sound great but the electronics are so punchy, in your face and distorted that nothing sounds clear at all apart from her vocals. But even they sometimes at some points in the track get lost in the mix of the mess it is. It all just kind of clumps together and isn’t very well arranged. The distorted electronic drum and bass beats, the weird video game-like sound effects, the techno rhythms and melodies don’t make it a very appealing song to listen to. You might feel differently, but it just doesn’t work for me. The only part of the song I like is the dance break bit and with her singing “daddy issues, huh”. Otherwise this song is just disappointing to say the least. I wish she would stay away from DJ’s and EDM-style so-called producers because they cannot provide for her the musical quality her voice needs to be surrounded by to really just exemplify how fantastic of a vocalist she is. I want for her material to be just as strong as her voice is so that she’s taken seriously as a vocalist and an artist. This electro-pop stuff just isn’t right for her at all.

Also, does anyone know why they censored out the word ‘fuck’ in the first verse? If you do, let me know. I thought I had downloaded the clean version until I realized it’s like that on the explicit version too.

1/10

6. Ruin The Friendship

This bluesy little number captured me eventually. I skipped passed it on the initial listen because my earphones were just making it sound just as bad as everything else sounded. Dull and dead. But no, the track doesn’t actually sound like that. I just need better listening gear. I love the drum beat and bassline on this track as well as the sensual Jazzy instrumentation. Those trumpets sound so sexy. I feel like it was missing a saxophone solo, but you can’t have everything. I’m just such a big fan of real and orchestral instrumentation. Demi’s vocals here are also very sensual and sexy. Using a softer and lower vocalization in the main vocal track but also doing the backing vocals in a high and light falsetto. Gives it a confident and yet vulnerable contrast. She’s almost whispering when she gets to the bridge. It’s really arousing. She gets louder and more forceful towards the end of the song. That gets your attention and pulls you out of that foggy haze her sensual vocals have put on you. So very emotive.

I am not gonna go into the lyrics. We all know who it’s about as she doesn’t exactly keep it illusive. I think it’s a really good track. Not as good as some of the others though so it’s not a personal favourite. You might feel differently and that’s perfectly fine.

7/10

7. Only Forever

Another ballad. A much needed departure from the faster tempo we’ve had for the passed few tracks. Demi has mentioned that this song is sort of like a part two from the last track ‘Ruin The Friendship’, so clearly it’s about the same thing and the same person. I won’t get into that. Although, I am very intrigued, I’m keeping it strictly about the music.

So the track opens with the sound of out-of-tune piano notes. Like they’re being played on an old, dusty, hasn’t been touched for years piano that’s so out of tune it just doesn’t function properly anymore and sounds awful. I’m sure there is an artistic reasoning behind this so I’m not gonna point it out as a fault. It’s probably got something to do with the story of the song. Connecting the musical production and the lyrics together to tell the story. I love songs that do that. The techno bass vocal effect makes it’s way into the album once again. She seems to really like that effect. It must provide or mean something specific for her. Not sure what that could be but it’s interesting enough to make me peruse my thoughts about it. And I love thought-provoking music and art of any kind. I love interpretating and coming up with theories and headcanons on that art. I always say we never look for the meaning in a piece of art. We create it for ourselves. It’s very synthy. Got lots of atmospheric synthesizers. Could almost pass for a dream-pop song. I find it a bit boring to be honest. However, it does make it more entertaining when she picks up power and tempo in vocals.

6/10

8. Lonely (feat. Lil Wayne)

Demi’s one and only collaboration for the album. There was supposed to be two but one fell through apparently. A midtempo borderline ballad I would call ‘Lonely’. It’s just basic percussion and bass. I think I hear an organ but I’m not sure. Any instrumentation in it isn’t very prominent. What makes it worth listening to at all is Demi’s emotive vocals. They sell the song. Like no question about it. Those creaky, raspy, husky vocals, emoting all the pain and grief and conveying them to the listener’s ears. You can hear everything she does without all the distracting instrumentation and you feel it. You feel how upset and pained she is. You literally feel how lonely she is. Or maybe it’s just me because I have the ability to feel what she feels anyway. Long story…

Her emotive vocals communicate everything there is to care about in the song because Lil Wayne’s feature is terrible. I mean, it’s really bad. 1. It’s covered in autotune. 2. Because it’s covered in autotune, you cannot make out a damn thing he is saying. 3. It just sounds like he is underwater for the whole thing. Maybe it’s a conscious artistic choice though, I don’t know. I thought he would be a good collaboration but nah… he might as well not even be there for all the good his rapping contributes to this track. It just doesn’t. It’s all Demi. Absolutely from start to finish, it’s all Demi. ‘Lonely’ would actually be a better track with just Demi solo. Lil Wayne is just that useless and pointless to it that you could edit him out and have Demi doing the rap and the song would actually be better. Maybe something to think about when she performs it on tour. If she performs it on tour…

5/10

9. Cry Baby

“I’m no crybaby, but you make me cry lately. I’m no crybaby, but you make me cry baby. Crybaby”.

This song if you can’t tell from the lyrics alone is just an absolute masterpiece. The musical and vocal production, the vocal performance, the rhythm of the verses, the guitar solo, the lyrics. Everything. Absolutely everything about this track is incredible. The chorus hits hard. The chorus is so fucking good! Let’s just talk about the intro to start with though before I get ahead of myself. When I heard the lone electric guitar echoing through my ears like it was being played in an empty arena, I immediately thought of ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’. But not Cher’s version. The Nancy Sinatra version from the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1. It’s actually one of my favourite films in history. Obviously not the same melody because that would be copyright. But I mean just the aesthetic of it. I fell for this track straight away. Hopelessly and helplessly fell in love with it. I’ve repeated it God knows how many times since it came out.

The musical production reminds me a lot of ‘Mistake’ from ‘Unbroken’ album. A very underrated track. But hopefully this won’t recieve the same treatment. Tayla Parx wrote this song along with another song called ‘The Beauty’ that unfortunately didn’t make it on the album. I’m dying to hear that one if ‘Cry Baby’ is this damn good! No guesses which song is my favourite song on the album.

10/10!

10. Games

This one has weird electronic sounds and effects like ‘Daddy Issues’ but I find them more tolerable than in that track. Again, it’s just an electro-pop track. Doesn’t sound very R&B or soulful at all. But maybe that’s just me. I don’t have much more to say about it than that. It’s not the worst on the album but it’s not much better than that. Not for me. It could have easily been replaced with a much more worthy track such as ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ from the exclusive Target version of the album.

2/10

11. Concentrate

‘Concentrate’ starts off as an acoustic/stripped down ballad at first. Snaps, claps and acoustic guitar. A little bit of reverb on Demi’s voice as she sings the lyrics in the verses. Then an electric guitar melody, her gospel choir and a drum beat comes in at the chorus and there’s definetly an organ that joins in too. It’s a very laidback track but it builds up to a climax, so it’s quite progressive and Demi sounds really great on it. Emotive vocals full of soul and attitude really lift the song into the stratosphere. When the heavier instrumentation comes in, it does not overtake her vocals. The vocal production remains clear and it’s easy to make out how she sounds and what she’s saying. It’s a good song but not a standout.

4/10

12. Hitchhiker

Bassline sounds off in the intro and brings us into another bluesy little number from the album. I especially love the backing vocals in this song. The gospel choir was a great addition to this era and this album. This song will sound amazing live with them. This is another song I’m really looking forward to hearing live. I love the musical production too. The driving guitars sound awesome. I wish there could of been a blues guitar solo. It would of really added the cherry on the cake to end off the standard version of the album.

8/10

This is my most favourite to least favourite tracks:

Cry Baby

Tell Me You Love Me

You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore

Sorry Not Sorry

Hitchhiker

Ruin The Friendship

Only Forever

Lonely

Concentrate

Sexy Dirty Love

Games

Daddy Issues

This is my track by track review of the standard version of Demi’s 6th studio album ‘Tell Me You Love Me’. I would of done the deluxe tracks but I don’t like ‘Instruction’ at all and there’s nothing really much to say. The ��Sorry Not Sorry’ acoustic version with the choir sounds great though. You should definetly check that out if you haven’t heard it yet. She’ll probably post the video of them performing it eventually. There is an exclusive Target version with 2 tracks on it called ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ and ‘Ready For Ya’ but since I don’t class them as part of the album itself, I’m not gonna review them either. But I do think ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ should of replaced either ‘Daddy Issues’ or ‘Games’ as I don’t like those tracks much but I do love that one. Thanks for reading. Give feedback.

- Girl4Music

#w #demi lovato #tell me you love me #track by track #fan review

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