Five years of Selena Gomez in For You

I think they could have used a better, clearer photo and layout on the cover of her latest album titled For You. Selena Gomez is one of the most beautiful young stars today and the sight of her face on the album would surely sell additional copies. But there is nothing we can do about that. It is just that I cannot help but think of ways to make better what is obviously an important album.

For You is a compilation of recordings Selena made with her band The Scene and as a solo artist. The album presents examples of her music of the past five years with songs taken from her four previous albums. I see it as the finale to the first part of her career. Here is a recap and it is very good, she seems to be saying. And with that phase now put to bed, it is now time to watch out for bigger things to come. That is how I see For You, a rousing summing up because Selena is gearing for major, exciting changes soon.

Selena has never been known to disappoint her fans or the public for that matter. Well, I admit that there was a time when many feared for her future considering she was the girlfriend of the controversial Justin Bieber. They were so young and seemed to be so in love. Thank heavens and thanks, too, to her BFFs like Taylor Swift, she is now over that. And her fans and their parents are very happy. Remember, she is expected to be a role model. Selena is now 22 years old but has so far remained her sweet self with no desire at all to express her supposed maturity by being rebellious.

I think the rebellion or I hope the expression of maturity will come with her work as an artist. As an actress, I have a feeling she will soon grow out of her Wizards of Waverly Place image through her choice of roles. Then, as a singer, I have a feeling she is preparing to amaze us with her next album. While no powerhouse performer like those other Disney princesses, Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato, Selena has always shown a tendency towards learning how to improve her singing and finding her own kind of music.

This has been consistently evident with every album that she released. There was the tentative line-up in 2009’s Kiss & Tell where a very young Selena with The Scene was clearly still in search of her pop niche. A Year Without Rain showed a vocalist coming to her own, showing passion in romantic ballads and trying out funky beats. More improvements were found in When The Sun Goes Down the first time she went solo without The Scene. By this time, she had already earned her chops as a singing star with several hit songs. Her next, Star Dance, where she went all out for dance tunes, was even better.

Cuts from these albums a number of new mixes and two new songs make up For You. They go from dance to funk to electro to simple pop and are Selena’s best so far. The first single in the new album is the exceptionally well- produced ballad The Heart Wants What It Wants. This is Selena at her vocal and most expressive best to date. It is clear from her performance that she can now go confidently anywhere as a pop singer.

The rousing Do It is the other new cut. Then there are Come & Get It, Love You Like A Love Song, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, Who Says, My Dilemma 2.0, Round & Round, Forget Forever (Boy Lightning Remix), Slow Down, Mas the Spanish version of More, Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Falling Down. To her credit, she did not merely take her songs and compiled them to make a new album. She got them remixed or changed a bit to sound new. I think the cuts Naturally her first big-seller and A Year Without Rain improved tremendously after these were remixed by Aude.

I missed Love Will Remember from Star Dance. Also When The Sun Goes Down and Hit The Lights. It can be described as incomplete but For You is all in all a very good collection. A must for all Selena fans and an excel- lent introduction for those who still have to discover what she can do as a recording artist. I wonder what she will do next.

And now let us take a look at the Top 20 titles in the latest Top 200 Albums chart from Billboard Magazine where Selena’s bestie Taylor’s album 1989 has been the No. 1 for a long 11 weeks.

1989 by Taylor Swift; X by Ed Sheeran; The Pinkprint by Nicki Minaj; In The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith; SremmLife by Rae Sremmurd; Hozier by Hozier; 2014 Forest Hills Drive by J. Cole; Guardians of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 the movie soundtrack; FOUR by One Direction; My Everything by Ariana Grande; Into The Woods, the movie soundtrack; Montevallo by Sam Hunt; Annie, the soundtrack; Greatest Hits: Decade #1 by Carrie Underwood; V by Maroon 5; Frozen, the soundtrack; Old Boots New Dirt by Jason Aldean; Reclassified by Iggy Azalea; Native by OneRepublic; and 1000 Forms Of Fear by Sia.