On the cover of her ninth studio album, Demi Lovato takes centre-stage in a world that revolves around her, whether the people in her periphery notice or not. A kid plays football, grandpas while away their afternoon playing chess, a paparazzo flashes her camera at another off-screen star. Lovato doesn’t seem to mind, because she knows something she didn’t before: It’s Not That Deep. 

Executive produced by Zhone, the album skims over casual rendezvouses, massive heartbreaks, and an acceptance of where she is, almost two decades into her career. At just half an hour long, the record skips by in just enough time to take to the dancefloor, take a breath out the side door, and make it back to sweat your stuff to your favourite song: on this album, it’s hard to pick just one.  

Lovato said: “This album represents an exciting chapter for me which has been filled with joy, freedom and lightness. Creating this album was the most fun I’ve ever had in the studio.” 

You can feel it, too: on ‘Fast’, the album’s opener, Lovato is back on the breakbeat and there to have fun. 

‘Here All Night’ is emblematic of what this new era represents: despite being steeled as a heartbreak anthem, it’s as much an ode to the club as it is a letter to anything as little as lost love. 

—

—

On ‘Frequency’, which feels gorgeously indebted to Madonna’s ‘Erotica’, Lovato finds somewhere that leaves nowhere to hide, despite its heavy synths. It’s primal, raw, no-holds-barred. 

‘Kiss’, too, is an out-and-out banger that reads like Slayyyter on truth serum. The ‘Brat’ comparisons are bound to be inevitable, but Lovato shouldn’t pay it any mind. She’s found something that feels her own here. 

The last songs, ‘Before I Knew You’ and ‘Ghost’, are two that reach the sincerity of Lovato’s early work. The first, a middle-fingered goodbye to the worst kind of boyfriend, is reminiscent of 2013’s ‘Heart Attack’, while the second works over ways to avoid saying goodbye at all, a sky-wish to be haunted by the man she loves. 

Whether she’s sticking her neck out into newer territory or playing faithful to her roots, one thing’s clear: Lovato’s at her best when it comes easy. 

7/10

Words: Kate Jeffrie

—