Album Review: Demi Lovato's "Dancing With The Devil... The Art Of Starting Over"

[ALBAVEASP]

"Smartly explores the carefree and vulnerable ways of describing one's journey."

(two minute read)

Demi Lovato is determined to find recovery with the newest and boldest projects she's ever had in her career. And if the standalone singles are not enough to openly contemplate her struggles with mental health and addiction, the four-part documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing With The Devil, shares the experiences, insights and growth of the 28 year old sober for the past couple of years.

The record has a long process before finalizing it's release last Friday, April 2nd. And while Lovato's involvement and campaign towards politics has put her in a less-received situation by the general audience, similar to Katy Perry's "purposeful era", the album is surprisingly a full 180° to her recent public image.

Starting with the three track interlude, Anyone is a cry for help. The classic piano driven ballad gives Lovato's voice a lift off while she soars right from the verses to chorus. It is interestingly dark, but the chorus's lines are rather sounded short and pressured. And that feeling where the verses are forced to fit in with the song's melody is also the Dancing With The Devil's issue. However, I.C.U. has paid it's worth to slow down the dramatic productions of the first two tracks, transitioning to a milder yet familiar songs.

The Art Of Starting Over and Lonely People deliver a slow-burning vibe that could've been more satisfying if they added some jazz elements to them. She also exploits her ***ual reference through The Kind Of Lover I Am and My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend, showing a less suggestive and refreshing ways of talking about ***uality without sounding imposed and crass. 

The subtlety and bittersweet lyricism, matched with the refreshing sound of acoustic guitar makes The Way You Don't Look At Me's texture admirable, desperately what Anyone and Dancing With The Devil are missing. What Other People Say is deliberately the highlight, with the undeniable chemistry and perfect pitch between the two, Fischer gives an outstanding performance layering and supporting Lovato's vocal capabilities, while emoting, "I wish I could shelter the boy I knew / From the constant hell I put him through / 'Cause I'm all grown up and I'm black and blue".

While the duet with Fischer has impressively excelled, the following collaborations with Grande and Saweetie are hit and miss. Despite the effort of Grande backing her signature trap-pop sound, Met Him Last Night ends up alienated in the album, though the bridge has a very great build up. Saweetie's part in My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend sounds unnecessary, since the song's structure could be independent. That rap verse would've been useful to a track with more upbeat production, The Kind Of Lover I Am for instance. [Noah] Cyrus's Easy is a safe take though, generally feels more of an album filler.

Melon Cake is definitely the golden-dance-nugget of the record. Enhanced with tropical/electro synths, it could be a potential sleeper hit, and notably similar to Max's So Am I. Moreover, Carefully achieves the mellow progression no other tracks did. The tenuous and breathy vocals, matched with a laidback production, the track is like a child to Perry's Tsunami and Gomez's Bad Liar. 

Particularly her rendition to Jules's Mad World has blended well with the closing tracks, ironically outdoing 15 Minutes and Butterfly. And it is a good thing the record's narrative is not really in a full circle, wrapping up with the Good Place, the track serves as a self-check with contentment, "Now I'm in a good place / Took a while to feel this way / No longer have to save face / Reconciled with okay".

Dancing With The Devil... The Art Of Starting Over shares heavyweight narratives but smartly explores the carefree and vulnerable ways of describing one's journey, from the darkest phase to finding the good place, without severing the album's cohesion. And though Lovato might be left behind by her peers in chart perspective, she finally found a piece of record that could toe to toe with Cyrus's artistic alterations, Grande's ***ual liberation and Gomez's music rarity.

Spoiler

Rating:  7/10

Favorite Tracks:

What Other People Say
The Way You Don't Look At Me
Melon Cake
Carefully
The Kind Of Lover I Am
California Sober
The Art Of Starting Over

Least Favorite Tracks:

Met Him Last Night
My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend
Anyone

What y'all think of the album?

[CHAOTIC STYLE.]

Nice read. ‘The Way You Don't Look At Me‘ is really one of her the best songs. 🤍

[icybaby]

It is a good album. Still didn't listen it in full. But i like a lot of the songs:Met him last night, lonely ppl, art of starting over, icu. Nice there r 22 songs not 15 like in most of the albums. She did a good job. Hope she is getting better and look forward to hear more Demi(but not od story again please).

[CinderHELLa]

This actually looks really cool and I want to check it out.