AFTER A LAST FOUR YEARS MARKED BY THE BIEBER BREAKUP, FAMILY STRUGGLES, AND A LUPUS RELATED KIDNEY TRANSPLANT, SELENA GOMEZ PAINTS A PERSONAL LANDSCAPE IN HER THIRD SOLO ALBUM

BY TIA KIM

The majority of 26 year old singers outright, let alone enormously successful ones, spend the majority of their third decade balanced somewhere between growth and self immolation, so overwhelmingly tempting and destructive are the negative influences on young artists. Selena Gomez was never really given an opportunity to explore these vertiginous edges of celebrity, simply because there have been few young people in the celebrity ranks as challenged by life circumstances as the Grand Prairie, Texas native. Her parents divorced when she was five, and her mother, who had Selena when she was 16, struggled to get her children by, often scouring the apartment for quarters in the process. Even after Gomez made her break in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana in 2007, and after early successful performing years (a first deal with Hollywood Records came when she was 16), she was plagued by bouts of anxiety and depression, for which she was treated at the Dawn at The Meadows facility in Arizona. In the wake of a long and paparazzi intensive on again, off again relationship with Justin Bieber that ended in 2014, Gomez red her mother and stepfather (co managers both), and in that same year was faced with the diagnosis of lupus. That autoimmune disorder reached a crisis point in 2017 that required a kidney transplant, provided by her friend, actress Francia Raisa. At time of press, she was in treatment again for mental health issues after being hospitalized twice for transplant related complications.

And all before the end of her first quarter century.

Still, the music has kept coming, most recently heard on the 2015 album, Revival, a catchy mix of dance pop and EDM. Her new disc, one that she described in a May Spotify interview as at least in part a personal exploration of tempestuous recent events, was “building for maybe two years,” she explained. “I was really happy with Revival, but at the same time, I was terrified of doing another record. Because for me, it could be like it was a step down, or that I needed to ‘beat’ that record, and I think every artist kind of struggles with that. So I waited…[If not], I wouldn’t have had the best songs I’ve ever had.”

Recent one off s like “Back to You” (from season two of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why), as well as 2017’s “Bad Liar” and “Fetish,” back that description up. Not funeral dirges to be sure, lively and interestingly paced pop tunes, but listeners don’t have to do a whole lot of line connecting to get to likely Bieber breakup allusions, in the case of “Bad Liar:”

“In my room there’s a king size space, Bigger than it used to be. If you want you can rent that place. Call me an amenity, Even if it’s in my dreams.”

There’s no date set for album release, Gomez added, but “It just feels like it’s my time and it’s at my pace. I’m not trying to throw a bunch of music in people’s faces until I’m ready.”