When The Sun Goes Down

Selena Gomez is simply a star.

She is blossoming out of her Disney career with grace and maturity, and this album proves it. The music on this album shows Selena in a new light. We all know Selena as a great teen actress, but this album truly shows how musically talented she is. Her first two albums were great, but you could see that she was struggling to find her signature sound. "When The Sun Goes Down" is a fantastic electro-pop album that is complete with all sorts of songs about love, heartache, and accepting yourself.

The album starts out with the unexpected and fresh "Love You Like A Love Song" in which Selena sings about a lover who makes her feel more mesmerized than her own music collection. "Bang Bang Bang", "Who Says" and "We Own The Night (featuring Pixie Lott)" are all great mid-tempo tracks that ease the listener into in Selena's soulful, unique voice. "Who Says" is Selena's most inspiring song on the album, which also features some of her best raw vocals to date.

"Hit The Lights" is a song about letting go of the past, and pursuing your dreams in the moment. It also serves as the gateway into the faster tempo remainder of the album. "Whiplash" is a strange and insanely catchy love song that was penned by Britney Spears. The title track is a fun techno-vibe song that is fun to dance to. "My Dilemma" stands out as a rock-edged song that describes a crazy relationship and highlights Selena's upper vocal range.

Selena's spunky personality shines in "That's More Like It" which is a female empowerment song written by Katy Perry. "Outlaw" is a western themed electro-pop song that has an undeniably fantastic hook. "Middle Of Nowhere" is a powerful dance song with sad lyrics, making a unique combination. The album closes with "Dices" which highlights Selena's Mexican heritage and her beautiful vocals.

While "Kiss & Tell" was a scattered album that couldn't settle on one sound, and "A Year Without Rain" found Selena stuck in a sea of auto-tune, "When The Sun Goes Down" gives longtime fans and music lovers alike a real look into the mature artist that is Selena Gomez. She can contend with the best of 2011's pop divas with this album, and, at the same time, be in a league all her own.

If you love catchy pop from a grounded and good role model, then Selena Gomez's latest release is a must-have. Her voice has grown leaps and bounds along with her talents as an actress, fashion designer, and public figure. Selena never tries to push the envelope or be something that she is not. "When The Sun Goes Down" is a fantastic album that gives her audience a soundtrack to their own lives.

So Selena Gomez and the Scene's first album was awesome. All the songs had amazing lyrics to them with alot of depth. For their second album, Selena wanted it to have more of a dance feel to it, which it did, but alot of the songs lacked much meaning. Now, their third album combined the dance and techno songs from the second cd with the lyrics from the first to create an absolutley outstanding ablum! You can really tell Selena is maturing, but not to the point where she's losing her younger fans. Her audience is broadening. I love how she's not trying as hard as Miley Cyrus had to to get an older group of listeners, she's just making great songs! I'm very proud for Selena and the Scene for creating such an awesome album. Mission accomplished!

Selena Gomez & The Scene released their sophomore studio album 'A Year Without Rain' in September 2010, 1 year after their debut album 'Kiss & Tell' since Selena had discovered the sound she liked. Having no rush to release another album and while promoting 'A Year Without Rain', Selena listened to a song composed by Emanuel Kiriakou and Priscilla Hamilton called 'Who Says' and she thought it was really inspirational and she had to have it. After having the track, she decided to begin a new release after she really loved 'Who Says' and thought her fans needed to hear it. In late 2010, Selena and her band were back in the studio again to record their third studio album. In February 2011, it was revealed to the public that the band was working on a new album and a new single was coming out soon. Selena revealed the song's name that same month and released it the following month. 'Who Says' received positive reviews and the critics and fans thought it was a great song with a more organic and acoustic feel and appreciated its inspiring message about self-empowerment. The band released their third album called 'When The Sun Goes Down' in June 2011 and I'll review the songs and give my conclusion at the end:

1. Love You Like A Love Song - The album's first track and second single. Like the title says, this is a love song but at the same time it's also good to dance. I like this song, but for me there were much better choices for the second single and I got bored of this song fast, it's too overrated by the fans who seem to love it way too much. I give it an 8/10

2. Bang Bang Bang - The album's second track. Just like the first track, I liked it at first but soon got bored of it and also think it's overrated, the only difference is that this song is slightly worse than the first one. The main problem is that the beats and the production is weak. This song was released as a promotional single. I give it a 7.5/10

3. Who Says - The album's third track and first single. I already talked about this one, this song inspired Selena to make a new record since the fans had to listen to it. I should say this when I give my conclusion but this song played an important role in this topic so I'll say it now: Selena shouldn't have released a third album so fast, a re-release could have been much better than a whole new record if she wanted to let her fans hear it. This is not the same as a re-release of 'Kiss & Tell', it wouldn't have worked with that album since Selena needed a whole new album to show the sound that identified her, a re-release wasn't appropiate since 'Kiss & Tell' was mostly experimental and had a lot of different sounds in it. A re-release of 'A Year Without Rain' could have worked, she could add this song a few more included on this album since it's the same sound. Whatever, she already released a new album so I can't complain, this song is very inspiring and I fell in love with it when I first heard it, but after almost 1 year it doesn't sound too fresh, but I still won't deny its message is awesome and this song proves how Selena loves her fans and makes her music for them. I give it a 9.5/10

4. We Own The Night - The album's fourth track. Personally, I expected more from this song, I expected it to be a fun song to dance and in fact I thought it would be the same version recorded by Jessie And The Toy Boys, so I was surprised to see it was a different composition. I think this song is pretty dull and the message isn't appropiate for her young fans (it talks about spending the night with a boy!). I give it a 6.5/10

5. Hit The Lights - The album's fifth track and third and final single. Finally some good dance songs like I heard them on 'A Year Without Rain', this song will for sure make you dance and was a perfect choice for the third single. I give it a 9.5/10

6. Whiplash - The album's sixth track. Now this is an AMAZING NEXT LEVEL track! And of course, no one else than Britney Spears and her writers team could have made this awesome dance song, this was recorded by Britney for her album 'Circus' but failed to appear on the tracklisting so it was later given to Selena who loved it. This song is so amazing and my favorite on the abum. I give it a 10/10

7. When The Sun Goes Down - The album's seventh track. This song is great and the best thing about it is that it was co-written by Selena and Joey Clement, one of the band's members. This song talks about waiting impatiently for the night to come so the party can start. I give it a 9.5/10

8. My Dilemma - The album's eighth track. This song didn't work very well with me, it talks about a dilemma with a love which was a theme that was also present on 'A Year Without Rain', but the real dilemma here is its instrumental... it's SO cheesy and corny, I wish Rock Mafia could have made a better work since the lyrics are great but the production is bad. I give it a 7/10

9. That's More Like It - The album's ninth track. This song was co-penned by Katy Perry again and given to Selena, the same happened with 'Rock God' which was included on 'A Year Without Rain'. According to Selena, it's about female empowerment but I just don't see that, the lyrics are very corny in my opinion and the song is pretty bad. I give it a 6.5/10

10. Outlaw - The album's tenth track. This song was also co-written by Selena and talks about a love runaway. It's a great song, but it sometimes get boring and you wish it ended. I give it a 8.5/10

11. Middle Of Nowhere - The album's eleventh track. This song is so beautiful, Selena really showcases her vocals here and sounds like a diva singing it, so I really appreciated that. This song ties with 'Whiplash' as my favorite on the album. I give it a 10/10

12. Dices (Who Says - Spanish Version) - The album's twelfth and final track on the standard edition. This is the Spanish version of 'Who Says' but since Spanish is my native language, I understood the lyrics and this time the message really changes, now Selena sings about herself instead of other people like her fans and that's not good. I don't blame Selena, I blame the guys who translated the song (Edgar Cortazar and Mark Portmann), why after the Spanish version of 'A Year Without Rain' turned out very neat you had to make such a bad translation that changed this song's message! Now it's just about Selena, not her fans and listeners and you're to blame. Selena's Spanish is still impressive, but I was so disappointed with the terrible translation that I will have to give it separate ratings. Translation: 0/10, Selena's Intention: 10/10, Selena's Spanish: 9.5/10, Original rating for English version: 9/10

This album wasn't as good as 'A Year Without Rain', while Selena's vocals have improved and her voice is not too autotuned, the album's production was pretty bad and seems like some producers saved their worst for Selena which is very bad (although Britney saved one of her best works ever and gave it to Selena). The lyrics weren't that bad (the best lyrics obviously being the ones from 'Who Says') but the production was a real problem here and that's why I rate this album a 4/5 on Amazon. I still recommend this album to any Selena fan and even casual listeners who might like the songs I didn't. Like I said in the review for the song 'Who Says', a re-release could have worked better and should have included 'Whiplash', 'Middle Of Nowhere' and 'Who Says'. Anyways, congratulations Selena, but next time work with better producers or tell your current producers to stop fooling you and giving you their worst songs.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 65 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars