Album Review - Demi Lovato - Tell Me You Love Me

By Lisa Diedricks

Released Friday September 29th, 2017 - Universal Music

The months most anticipated album (at least in my mind) is FINALLY here ladies and gentleman! Demi Lovato’s 6th studio album “Tell Me You Love Me” hit iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify this morning and it has been blasting ever since!

The beautiful diva, showcases in my opinion her best vocals to date. Demi extends her genre runs from warming soul, to slow-seductive beats, to massive show-stopping ballads specifically designed to show off every single one of Lovato's vocal ranges and ability. First listen I couldn’t help but get this overwhelming feeling of a proud moment, as being a day one follower of the pop star, I know this album means A LOT to the artist and took her over a year to record, as she wanted to per-fect the different sounds and feels of every song. “The battle cries of pop predecessors like Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson, she unleashes on exes and backstabbing friends with the kind of vocal firepower best appreciated from a safe distance".  

With tracks like “Concentrate” and “Games” her vocals exceed my expectations by a mile in the most simplistic forms of runs and trails that she attacks with no effort. Her lead ups to most of her runs in all the songs sends chills down your spine BEFORE it even reaches your ears!

Demi released a few tracks before the album release, tracks such as “Tell Me You Love Me”, “Sorry Not Sorry’”, You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore” and recent release “Sexy, Dirty, Love”. All tracks have a different sound in terms of acoustics and messages, for us fans. Demi has always tried to be the most open she possibly can with her music as she feels that’s where her fans deserve the most honesty from her. Her music is most times misconstrued for bitchy ex attacks where if you listen closely, the artist is talking about herself and her past. Which makes the second time listening your mind is exposed to a whole new song! That’s pretty damn cool, and I’m probably a bit biased, but you can’t deny true artistry when it hits you in the face!

“Tell Me You Love Me” is screaming Grammy nominations, and with the many talented and respected producers such as Oak Felder, Stint, John Hill, Trevor Brown, Zaire Kaolo, DJ Mustard, Jax Jones, Taylor Parks it’s easy to see why! Demi has been very open in intervies about wanting to work with producers that would allow themselves to dive into her image and portray her message through the sound and feel of the song.

In an interview with MTV News, Lovato stated that she was influenced by many artists for Tell Me You Love Me, including Aretha Franklin, Christina Aguilera and Kehlani. She commented that the album was heavily inspired by Aguilera, specifically her 2002 release Stripped, which Lovato cited as "a breakout album that really transformed her into the icon that she is today". Lovato revealed that she worked with producers Pharrell Williams and Mike Will Made It, but their work would not be featured on the album.

And my favorite song on the album has to be “Daddy Issues” and “Lonely” as her vocals on both tracks are SO different but WOW they just speak to me on such an emotional level that triggers through her vocals. The production value on both these tracks, from the clean synths, slow drum kicks and the ever so subtle guitar riffs, it’s definitely not a question why I wouldn’t like these!

If you haven’t yet had a listen to this album, do yourself a favor and chuck it on, it’s definitely office friendly so the boss won’t mind! You can listen to the album on all forms on music platforms right now! 

5 / 5