Selena Gomez & The Scene - When The Sun Goes Down

I've actually never listened to this album the whole way through. At least I don't think I have. I find that odd since it contains some of my favorite tracks ever released by Selena. I'm hoping to find some other songs of the same quality for her final album with The Scene.

Track #1, Love You Like A Love Song: For some reason I kept thinking this was on A Year Without Rain. I was very confused when I started to do that post & this wasn't on the track list. I associate this album with songs like Hit The Lights which are more mainstream dance pop while this sounds like a continuation of Naturally and A Year Without Rain. That's a good thing though. Undoubtedly the best single of her career, I really feel like this song helped to bring her to some public attention for her music. 5/5

Track #2, Bang Bang Bang: It's crazy how great this style works for Selena. I don't know what the heck she is thinking going in the direction that she is with her new single. She can do whatever the heck she wants, but gosh she has such a winning formula with the dance pop stuff. I find the song pretty lyrically immature, but the music of the song saves it. It's probably closer to synthpop than electropop or dance pop. Stylistically, it's close to Love You Like A Love Song which made it an ideal candidate to be a pre-release single. 4.5/5.

Track #3, Who Says: So a funny story about this song. A friend of mine didn't like Selena at all. Like she would mention it whenever she saw her on TV. About a year or so after this came out, she sent me a message about it and how she liked it. Coming into the present, she really likes Selena's music. I've always found that amusing lol. For me, it's not one of my favorites from her. It's okay, I'm just not that into pure pop/pop rock songs anymore. The content of the song is good though. 3.5/5.

Track #4, We Own The Night (ft. Pixie Lott): As a fan of Pixie Lott's music, I had been very excited to hear their collaboration when I saw the tracklist. The song is unfortunately such a let down. It's more pop rock (which is closer to Pixie's style at the time) and it sounds strange coming right after Love Song & Bang. Beyond that, the chorus goes nowhere. It's so flat and lifeless. Pixie's vocals in the song are pointless as well because you can barely hear her in anything over Selena's vocals. 3/5.

Track #5, Hit The Lights: Even though I love her Stars Dance album, this is my absolute favorite Selena song. There really isn't anything super special about it that makes it stand out. It's just a standard dance pop song like everything that you could hear on the radio from like 2010-2012. It just hits me in a way that none of her other songs do. 5/5.

Track #6, Whiplash: Another of my favorite Selena songs. It sounds so much like something Britney would do, but unlike the track before that sounds like Katy, this works. It's like if Toxic was done for Blackout instead of earlier. I swear this is what Toxic would have sounded closer to. Should've been a single. 5/5.

Track #7, When The Sun Goes Down: I had big expectations for this song because the title reminded me a lot of Stars Dance which is one of my favorite songs by her. I don't know what possessed me to think I could be excited over a song by a title. I don't really care for this song. This is something Katy Perry should have done and doesn't suit Selena at all. 3/5.

Track #8, My Dilemma: I guess there had to be a Disney-esque track on the album didn't there (I don't count Who Says as Disney-esque since most pop stars were on that whole "love yourself" train a few years ago.) I don't hate Disney music, in fact quite the opposite, it's just weird when the singles of an album are trying to say "I'm trying to be mature!" but then there's songs on the album that sound like Kiss & Tell. Even though this song doesn't mesh with the album concept well, I like it. It's a catchy tune. 4/5.

Track #9, That's More Like It: Ah. Perhaps I spoke too soon with track #7. This is way more Kiss & Tell. In fact, My Dilemma is much more mature than this. The "make my dinner, bring it to me" line is so cringy. Yikes...spoke too soon again. The bridge is even worse. 3/5.

Track #10, Outlaw: The verses of this song are so promising. They are along the lines of Hit the Lights & Whiplash. Unfortunately, the chorus and bridge fall so flat in comparison. They're just absolutely lifeless. 3.5/5.

Track #11, Middle Of Nowhere: The most disappointing thing about this album is that in a lot of the songs, the verses are so good but the choruses just fall flat or change style too much. This song is just another example of that. It's verses are like a tamer Whiplash, yet the chorus is Kiss & Tell. It's disappointing. 3.5/5.

Track #12, Dices: The Spanish version of Who Says.

I really don't care a whole lot for this album. The songs I like from it are fantastic, but the album as a whole is very average. I was expecting more due to my love for some of the songs on the album. 4/5.

Selena Gomez & The Scene - A Year Without Rain

From the time that it was announced that Selena was going to have a "band" instead of just going solo I knew that she would definitely end up going solo. The whole band thing was pretty silly...especially because she was practically solo anyway. It was a gimmick to have her do something different from Miley & Demi I believe. This release is her ("their") second album.

Track #1, Round & Round: This song is probably my least favorite lead single of hers (sans her new one which I find awful actually). It feels kind of a step back from Naturally and is more childish to me. The dance pop direction definitely fits her though. Her first album's style never really worked for her. 4/5.

Track #2, A Year Without Rain: The type of music that this song is describes my ideal Selena music perfectly. For a newer song of hers that gives off the same feel it would be Stars Dance. The pulsing beat in the background is so nice. Since she's not the best singer, the music really helps to mask that. And that also brings up what I dislike about the song. Her, uh, adlibbing I guess you could call it, is extremely annoying. Her voice is not meant for it and the music doesn't help sadly. 4/5.

Track #3, Rock God: Whatever happened to Rock Mafia? They made some great tracks. I haven't heard anything produced by them in a while. This is such a great track and has so much attitude. A surprisingly rebellious track on a Disney star's album (as she was still very much Disney at this point). 5/5.

Track #4, Off The Chain: This song will remain one of Selena's best ever. How it wasn't a single I will never now. It's a lot like Naturally except with a more danceable beat. I'd love another song like this. 5/5

Track #5, Summer's Not Hot: It certainly does not sound like Selena in the beginning of this song. This song really sounds more like something Demi would put out that Selena. The only thing that makes it more Selena is that it has a dance pop beat instead of being more straight pop. It's also a very Disney Channel song. There's nothing wrong with that, it just belongs more on her first album than this one. 3.5/5.

Track #6, Intuition (ft. Eric Bellinger): I have no idea who the feature is. I haven't heard his name anywhere. I'm guessing he must be part of another Hollywood Records group or something. It's just a really random feature that adds male vocals to a song that would have been perfectly fine without it. The song itself really fits perfectly on this album. It's a good mix of the more dance direction the album was taking with the more Disney pop of the first album. It works where Summer's Not Hot doesn't, by not alienating the fan base from the old album and having a new direction to appeal to more people. 4/5.

Track #7, Spotlight: Yeah the lyrics of this song aren't very good and the spoken bridge can be a little annoying, but this is probably my favorite song of the album. It's got a quality to it that makes it extremely catchy. I really can't describe it. I just think it's great. 5/5.

Track #8, Ghost Of You: I guess all albums just have to have a ballad don't they? What I appreciate about this song is her vocals and the production. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, I don't believe Selena can sing well at all. She does sounds quite good here. Sure it's been through a lot of studio filters and computer programs, but it sounds really nice with the minimal production compared to some of the other more dancey songs. 4/5.

Track #9, Sick Of You: This song sounds right off of her first album. It's not a bad thing in this case at all. Even though it's more pop rock instead of dancey, it works really well on this album. It's somewhat more mature than other songs on her first album and doesn't sound much like the Disney pop rock stuff. In fact, it reminds me a lot of Kelly Clarkson. 4.5/5.

Track #10, Live Like There's No Tomorrow: This album's over already? Wow it feels so short. It's too bad the album doesn't end on a high note. This song doesn't fit the album at all, which makes sense because it was a song for some movie she did. Even though it's my least favorite song of the album, I don't mind that it's here. It makes sense to put a promotional song like this on the album. It also sounds a lot like Jason Derulo's Marry Me....well, I guess his song would sound like this since this came earlier. I want to sing "will you marry me" at the chorus so much. 3/5.

The album is a step up from her first one. It's not so amazing as to blow the average listener away, but it's a nice album from a girl who was still very much a Disney artist at the time. 4/5.