Rare (Selena Gomez album)

Speaking in a November 2019 interview for Apple Music on the subject of her upcoming studio album Rare, Gomez admitted that the unreleased tracks were where she currently was. She also said that the songs on the tracklist went well with each other, after putting them in order.[4]

Gomez appeared on the radio program On Air with Ryan Seacrest and told Seacrest that she had "a million ideas and it’s just going to be cooler and it’s going to be stronger and it’s going to be better."[5] She later told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that the album would have a "sense of strong pop", and that she experimented with electric guitar. She also told Fallon that it took her "four years now to even feel at a good place with this album".[6]

Rare is primarily a pop[7] and dance music[8] record which experiments with many genres, such as R&B,[9][10] electro,[10] funk-pop,[11] reggaeton,[9] alternative pop[12] and electronic music.[11] The main themes are of "love, loss and dating".[10] Gomez herself stated that the album is "honest, empowering and uplifting",[13] while its main messages are "self love, acceptance and empowerment".[14] She also added that the songs on Rare are "the most honest music I’ve ever made".[15]

Songs

Rare contains two collaborations: The ninth track "Crowded Room" features American singer 6lack (pictured left) in the song's bridge, while the thirteenth track "A Sweeter Place" features American rapper Kid Cudi (pictured right) in the second verse and outro.

The standard edition of Rare contains 13 tracks. The opener and title track is a "quiet but impactful self-love anthem"[16] with lyrics discussing "the wavering interests of a lover"[17] and the singer realizing "her love interest isn't valuing her in the way she deserves".[18] Its sound has been referred to as "backing vocals and instrumentals muffled as if the whole thing has been dunked underwater".[19] The following track, "Dance Again", is a blend of multiple genres, including funk,[20][21] dance,[7] electro,[22] and electropop.[12][23] It encompasses an "infectious" and "mellifluous" melody, "Cure-like" bass, "fuzzy" synths and a "walloping disco bassline".[24][7][25] It has been described as "lite-Daft Punk"[21] and "low-key yet deeply infectious".[7] Co-written with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, "Look at Her Now" is an upbeat dance-pop[26] and electropop[12] track which explores "being better off without the bad ones" and getting over the end of a relationship. The fourth song, "Lose You to Love Me", is the only ballad on Rare.[8] Its "bare-bones" production[27] incorporates "plucked" violins, "booming" bass, "tearjerker" piano, an orchestra, and "multi-tracked Gomez voices cascading against each other".[26][7] Critics speculated that it may be about Gomez's split from her ex-boyfriend, Justin Bieber.[28] The Latin-infused "Ring", which deals with "toying with noncommittal lovers",[26] drew comparisons to the works of Camila Cabello (namely her 2017 hit single "Havana"), Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know", as well as Santana's "Smooth".[26][28][29][23] Produced by The Monsters & Strangerz with Jon Bellion, "Vulnerable" is a "warm" disco[21][28] and electropop[12] record with a "moody synth groove"[26] and elements of italo disco and tropical house.[30]

Influences of Latin music are also present on the upbeat and "dancefloor-ready"[25] "Let Me Get Me".[28] The first of Rare's two collaborations, "Crowded Room", is an R&B song which features American rapper 6lack. Tracks 10, 11, and 12 all have a funk sound.[7] "Kinda Crazy" is a "tongue-in-cheek tune" and "sinuous kiss-off"[12][21] driven by a "clean bluesy guitar lick and accompanying horns".[24] "Cut You Off" is a "slinky" downtempo pop song with influences of funk,[31] and a "slow jam" about "saying goodbye to a relationship that's dragging you down".[32] It has been compared with works by Taylor Swift.[7] Rare concludes with "A Sweeter Place": A collaboration with rapper Kid Cudi, the song "documents the life lessons Selena has learned and expresses hope that brighter days lie ahead".[12] The vinyl and digital bonus track editions of Rare feature the song "Feel Me",[33] which was previously featured on the setlist of Gomez's 2016 Revival Tour.[34][35] Gomez released the song on digital platforms on February 21, 2020, the day of the vinyl release.[36]

The album was first announced and named on Gomez's Instagram account,[37] where she revealed the cover art and included a snippet of the title track.

The standard edition of the studio album was promoted and preceded by the release of "Lose You to Love Me" released October 23, 2019, and "Look at Her Now" on October 24, 2019.[38][39] On November 24, 2019, Gomez performed "Lose You to Love Me" and "Look at Her Now" at the 2019 American Music Awards to promote the album. The title track was released as the third single the same day the album came out. She also appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to talk about the release of Rare.[6]

In addition, "Dance Again" was scheduled to be used to promote CBS Sports and Turner Sports' coverage of the 2020 NCAA Tournament.[40] However, the song was never used, as the event was cancelled over concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.[41] A part of the proceeds from "Dance Again" went toward the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.[42] A performance video of the track was posted on YouTube on March 26, 2020.[43]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100[44]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[45]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[46]
The Independent	[47]
NME	[48]
Pitchfork	6.8/10[23]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Slant Magazine	[49]

Rare received positive reviews from music critics, with many deeming it the best album of Gomez's career to date. The cohesive production received praise; however, some critics found the songwriting "easy". At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 76 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[44]

Variety's Jem Aswad labelled Rare as "one of the best pop albums to be released in recent memory" and described it as "sophisticated, precisely written and expertly produced music".[7] While calling it "shockingly, and beautifully, upbeat", Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone opined that the album is "an act of divine ruthlessness, full of dance-y, mid-tempo clarity".[8] Writing for NME, Rhian Daly called the album "a beautifully confident return from one of pop's most underrated stars, and a quietly defiant wrestling back of the narrative surrounding her",[48] while Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly praised the album's "lightness" despite its "heavy messaging".[46]

Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times named Rare as Gomez's "most meaningful solo disc" and opined that it embraces "an infectious spirit of adventure".[28] Similarly, Vulture's Craig Jenkins wrote that the album is "almost inarguably Selena Gomez's best album".[50] In a mixed review, Pitchfork's Quinn Moreland stated that the album was her "most cohesive record to date" but that "[Gomez's] introspection can only go so deep when it's paired with sleek, easy songwriting that lets her slip by".[23] In concurrence, Alexandra Pollard of The Independent gave the album three stars out of five, deeming it "an accomplished, coherent record, with moments of ecstasy and others of pathos" but concluding that it "never quite gets out from beneath the shadow of half a decade of behemothic bangers."[47]

Rare debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 112,000 album-equivalent units, (including 53,000 pure album sales) in its first week.[51] This became Gomez's third US number-one album and the first album released in the 2020s decade to top the chart.[51] This also became her third consecutive number one debut.[51] In its second week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, earning an additional 38,000 units.[52] In its third week, the album dropped to number 15 on the chart, earning 26,200 more units.[53][54]

In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart earning 17,661 album-equivalent units in its first week.[55] The album debuted behind Lewis Capaldi's Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent becoming her first UK top ten and her highest charting album in the country.[55]

In Australia, the album debuted at number one on the ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart, becoming Gomez's first number one debut in the country. It also became her first number-one album in Argentina, Belgium, Lithuania, Taiwan and Scotland.

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[56]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Rare.[65]

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Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[97]	Silver	60,000
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

• List of 2020 albums
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2020
• List of number-one albums of 2020 (Australia)
• List of number-one albums of 2020 (Belgium)
• List of number-one albums of 2020 (Canada)